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Housmans
radical
booksellers
since 1945

 
BOOKS AT HOUSMANS

To buy any book, please call 020-7837 4473
or email shop@housmans.com

Housmans Bookshop is the main broad-based radical bookshop in London, and is
one of the most significant radical bookshops in the country. We stock a wide range
of books, including mainstream titles as well as radical ones covering fields such as
peace and anti-militarism, the environment, human rights and civil liberties, gender
and sexuality, anarchism, and - region-by-region - analysis of many of the world's
trouble spots and troublesome spots (including the Middle East and North America).
 
All this is in addtion to our wide range of stationery, our intriguing postcards and
greeting cards, and the largest range of radical and political magazines you will find
stocked anywhere in Britain. Although we're highly accessible (Housmans is in one
of the best-connected corners of central London), we also run an efficient mail order
service - see below. Please also see below for information about our booklists.

STUDENT DISCOUNTS

Housmans is pleased to offer bona fide students a 10% discount on our regular book
prices - this generally includes specialist academic titles that we order in for you. In
fact, we currently offer a 10% student discount on virtually everything stocked in the
shop (not only on books) - the major exceptions being postage stamps and Book
Tokens. Our large £1-a-book secondhand section is included in this offer. The student
discount applies to personal shoppers - it is not necessarily available for items supplied
by mail order.

SECONDHAND BOOKS

We have frequent book sales, with the stock largely made up of a fluctuating - and also
highly eclectic - range of secondhand books. These books cover many of the areas you
find in the shop's main stock, but will also often surprise you (they do us sometimes!).
Our secondhand sale stock will typically include many hundreds of books at just £1, and
sometimes many more at £2 and £3. Obviously, it's difficult for us to answer questions
as to exactly which titles we have in stock at any moment (though you can always ask) -
but that's yet another excuse for you to visit us for a liesurely and rewarding browse.

Housmans is happy to accept donations of secondhand books to help us to raise money
to support our work. This is also a helpful way for many (long out of print) classic radical 
titles to be recycled to other, newer activists who might value them. For a much larger and
more serious range of secondhand books (many of them at more serious prices too), you
should visit our neighbours downstairs at Porcupine Bookcellar.

THE HOUSMANS MAIL ORDER SERVICE

Whenever you want to get books from Housmans, if you can't come to us we'll gladly
send the books to you - whether they're from our specialist stock or are more general 
titles. In fact, we earnestly encourage you to choose Housmans as your book supplier 
whether or not your requirements are more generally available, for without the under-
pinning of the more mainstream trade it is very much harder for the independent,
alternative shops like Housmans to survive - and then we won't be here when you 
really do need us for material which will never be stocked by the high street bookshop
chains.

If the books you order are ones we have in stock, we will normally despatch them within
24 hours. For all "inland" destinations (ie all four parts of the UK, and also the Channel
Islands, the Isle of Man, and BFPO addresses), post and packing is charged at a £1 flat
rate for book orders up to £15; orders worth £15 or more are sent post-free inland. If you
want us to send books "overseas", please enquire about costs.

Please note that although the above "£1 post & packing" and "free post & packing"
offers apply to most books stocked in the shop or obtained for customers (not only to
books listed on this website), we regret that we are unable to apply this mail order pricing
structure to those items in the shop which are offered at deep discounts. In particular, our
hundreds of £1-a-book secondhand items, if sent by post rather than supplied in person,
will have the cost price of the postage added.

You can order books by post (5 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London N1), by phone
(020-7837 4473), by fax (020-7278 0444), or by e-mail (orders@housmans.com) -  as well
as in person in the shop of course, if you need to order a title which isn't in stock when
you visit. We will accept cheques (in £ Sterling only), which should be made payable to
"Housmans", as well as all the major credit/debit/charge cards. Cash (in UK£, US$, or
Euro only) can be accepted, but is sent at your own risk. Many books have payment
buttons shown on the relevant booklist page on our website - in these cases you can
use your credit card to order automatically online. For other books, or if you want to
pay by any other method, please see payment options above.

BOOKS NOT CURRENTLY IN STOCK

Any book in print that we don't already have in stock can be obtained, for you to collect
from the shop or to be sent to you. Normally, books will be available within a week or
less. However, specialist books - in particular those from small publishers, or those
published abroad - can take much longer. There is no charge for ordering books for you,
but we may have to ask for a deposit if the book is very expensive, or not returnable to
the publisher. Please note that we cannot generally supply out-of-print books, except for
titles that we actually have in stock - but it's always worth checking with our downstairs 
neighbours at Porcupine Bookcellar (020-7713 1717) about their extensive second-hand 
collection.

HOUSMANS BOOKLISTS

We regularly produce booklists on various topics, which may be available in print and/or
on our website. Naturally, these lists can only refect a proportion of the thousands of
titles we have in stock; and our stock is always changing, with new titles available day
by day! (Hence a visit to Housmans to browse - and maybe find something you didn't
even know you wanted - is always the best option if you're within reach.)

The booklists currently on this website are a mixture of recent titles, best-sellers, and - 
in the case of some of our specialist areas - recommended reading. See the notes with
each list for further details. And remember that if you want to buy any of the books on
these lists (or books not on these lists!), and you really can't get into Housmans in
person, then you can use our cheap and efficient mail order service - see above for
more details.

KEY TITLES

Below, we mention some of our own publications, together with a few topical highlights
from our current stock - but please check our booklists for many more titles. Or better
still, visit Housmans! We're in one of the best-connected areas of London, with literally
half of all the London Underground lines within just one block of the shop. In the unlikely
event that you get lost on the way, you can ring us on 020-7837 4473 - providing you
buy something when you arrive, we don't charge for search parties.


"Enemy Combatant" by Moazzam Begg in paperback £7.99
HOUSMANS PEACE DIARY -


Housmans Peace Diary 2008

Every year we publish the Housmans Peace Diary. This consists of a week-to-a-view pocket diary laced with weekly quotations, with relevant anniversaries marked each day.

The diary also includes a World Peace Directory, giving contact details for almost 2000 national and international peace, environmental and human rights organisations, selected each year from the latest version of the full World Peace Database published by the Housmans Peace Resource Project.

 

See Peace Diary for details.

 

People Power and Protest since 1945: A Bibliography of Nonviolent Action

Priced at just £7.50 in the shop (see ordering buttons below for prices including shipping costs), this 200-page bibliography is destined to be a key resource for both activists and academics for years to come. Compiled by April Carter, Howard Clark and Michael Randle, this is an annotated bibliography of nearly 1000 itemised references, providing a guide both to recent campaigns and to the theory and practice of nonviolent action. It covers diverse movements, some not exclusivly nonviolent, and raises highly controversial issues. Introductions to each section provide relevent historical background, and also note some criticisms. This is a powerful reference source for activists, and will be of use to students and academics dealing with the history, politics or sociology of popular movements around the world.


Some recent stock

£10.99

CND: Now More Than Ever

Kate Hudson

A story of CND, from its foundation in 1958, by its current chairperson.

 

£28.00

War is a Crime Against Humanity

Devi Prasad

The history of War Resisters' International 1921-1972. The first 50 years of the development of WRI's pacifism following WW1: promoting individual conscientious objection and collective nonviolent action.

 

£18.99

2/15: the day the world said NO to war

A full colour collection of grassroots photos, artwork & critical statements re the worldwide anti-Iraq war demonstrations on 15 February 2003.

 

£15.99

Stop the War - "The Story of Britain's Biggest Mass Movement"

Andrew Murray & Lindsey German

Coffee table material.

 

£12.95

The Battle of the Beanfield

(Ed) Andy Worthington

The newly-published story of the police attack on eaceful travellers in 1985 - now an epic film!

 

 

 

£25.00

Women, Law and Human Rights - An African Perspective

Fareda Banda

Shows how law and its interpretation is used to disenfranchise women.

 

 

 

£9.99

One Voice

Vera Brittain

Two of Vera Brittain's WWII critiques of the war, jointly re-published in 2005 - ever topical, unfortunately.

 

 

£10.00

Legacy

Claire Andrews

Recaptured treasures and lasting memories of Caribbean migrants in Britain after the second World War.