Review: Patriots, by Peter Morgan
As I sometimes do, I saw this play recently and decided to read the text later. It was a very good play — and it is a superb text. This is the story of Russian…
Review: Upgrade, by Blake Crouch
I loved Dark Matter, I liked Recursion, and I had high hopes for this book too. But I was disappointed. While the other books by Blake Crouch were about theoretical physics (in a sense), with…
Azerbaijan: Labour activists targeted as new unions emerge
In places where existing trade unions fail to organise workers, new unions will often emerge to fill the gap. And those new unions will sometimes be the subject of state repression as a result. This…
Review: Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch
Blake Crouch seems to make a habit of taking great ideas for science fiction novels, going as far as he can with the idea — and then going further. Much further. So this book, which…
Review: Fast This Way: Burn Fat, Heal Inflammation and Eat Like the High-Performing Human You Were Meant to Be, by Dave Asprey
I could be nasty and summarise this book in one sentence: fast for 16 hours a day and make sure to drink Dave Asprey’s Bulletproof Coffee. Because it gets a little bit annoying (more than…
Review: Recursion by Blake Crouch
“False Memory Syndrome” sounds like a real thing, and it is. It is also the starting point for this outstanding thriller which is part time travel, part love story. It is a book, above all,…
Review: World Bolshevism, by Iulii Martov
Paul Kellogg and Mariya Melentyeva have performed an important service by bringing this long-forgotten work by the most famous of the Mensheviks back into print. Their new translation and Kellogg’s introduction are excellent; the book…
Review: Case Sensitive, by A.K. Turner
The third (and final, for now) book in the new British crime series featuring Camden mortuary worker Cassie Raven is keeping up the high standard set by the previous two stories. The fact that I…
1923: The German October
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the decision by the Communist International to launch an armed uprising in Germany. The uprising, which took place in October that year, was a dismal failure. It also…
Review: Life Sentence, by A.K. Turner
The second book in the Cassie Raven series is as good as the first. This time, the Camden-based mortuary worker investigates a cold case even closer to home: her father, jailed for murdering her mother…