BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Housmans Bookshop - ECPv6.15.18//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Housmans Bookshop X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://housmans.com X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Housmans Bookshop REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20230326T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20231029T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20240331T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20241027T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20250330T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20251026T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20260329T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20261025T010000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240510T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240510T223000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240409T152609Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240430T100941Z UID:56179-1715367600-1715380200@housmans.com SUMMARY:Book Talk: Change Everything by Natalie Bennett DESCRIPTION:Housmans are delighted to welcome Natalie Bennett to the shop to celebrate the publication of her new book of green political theory: Change Everything: How we can rethink\, repair and rebuild society. \n\n\n\nWe are living in a social\, political\, economic and environmental emergency. The status quo is profoundly unstable; change is inevitable. Now is the time to get together to build a far healthier and more balanced world. The decades-old political orthodoxy\, that greed is good\, inequality doesn’t matter and we can keep treating the planet as a mine and a dumping ground\, has been a recipe for disaster. Our world needs a new vision\, the Green vision. From Universal Basic Income to free education\, from less stuff but more life\, to genuine democratic opportunities for all\, Natalie Bennett brings together a holistic\, hopeful and practical vision for the future.The foundations of Change Everything are conversations with many thousands of people. We need to engage millions to bring together the imagination\, talents and energy of all to rebuild and repair our societies. Then a positive future is within our reach. \n\n\n\n‘This book is a tonic! Positively bristling with countless common-sense solutions to restore human and planetary wellbeing\, Change Everything powerfully sets out what needs to be done and how to do it. Both practical and hopeful\, it’s essential reading for anyone who wants a route map to a fairer\, greener future.’Caroline Lucas MP \n\n\n\n‘Natalie Bennett is right. We have to change everything. But how? Sitting on our hands and hoping things will return to ‘normal’ is not an option . . . Natalie Bennett provides hope and inspiration by showing us how in a myriad of practical ways. If you want to “be the change you wish to see in this world”\, read this book’ Christine Milne\, former leader of the Australian Greens \n\n\n\nAbout the author: \n\n\n\nNatalie Bennett was leader of the Green Party of England and Wales 2012-2016\, and entered the House of Lords in 2019. That’s meant a decade travelling the country speaking at public meetings\, in schools\, colleges and universities\, and hearing about the many great grassroots efforts being made to tackle our polycrises. She has degrees in agricultural science\, humanities and social science\, reflecting her passion for joined-up\, systems thinking\, rather than reductionist\, 20th-century-style approaches. She was editor of the Guardian Weekly\, chief sub-editor on the Bangkok Post\, and a volunteer at the Thai National Commission on Women’s Affairs. She grew up on the lands of the Wallumedegal people in northern Sydney. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose book + event entry\, your copy of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or have it delivered\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 7pm\, Event Starts 7:30 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-talk-change-everything-by-natalie-bennett/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/F9wbVXSWMAApun-.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240618T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240618T220000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240514T123202Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240607T104732Z UID:56958-1718737200-1718748000@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: Walking The Streets/Walking The Projects: OWEN HATHERLEY in conversation with LAURA GRACE FORD DESCRIPTION:Housmans are delighted to welcome Owen Hatherley and Laura Grace Ford to the shop to celebrate the publication of Owen’s latest book: ‘Walking The Streets/Walking The Projects.’ \n\n\n\nThese are two of our most beloved\, and exciting\, writers working at the thresholds of psychogeography\, urban theory and radical thought. So we are particularly excited to be able to get them in conversation at Housmans. Advance booking strongly recommended. \n\n\n\nAbout the book: \n\n\n\nA walk through the remnants of a social democratic America\, and an argument about its future.In the 1960s\, a novel ideology about cities\, and what was best for them\, emerged in New York. Pushing against the state planning of the time\, it held that cities were at their best when they were driven from the bottom-up and when organic\, unplanned processes were allowed to run their course\, in a spontaneous “ballet of the street”. Cities were at their worst\, however\, when the state stepped in\, demolishing lively old neighbourhoods and erecting giant\, sterile\, empty “projects”. This book uses the method of this ideology ― walking ― to test how true it actually is about the “capital of the twentieth century”\, New York City\, with a brief interlude in the capital\, Washington DC.The “projects” that are walked in this book range from cultural complexes in Manhattan to New Deal-era public housing developments in Brooklyn\, Harlem and Queens\, from the social experiment of Roosevelt Island to Communist housing co-operatives in the Bronx\, from the union-driven rebuilding of the Lower East Side to DC’s magnificent Metro. For all their many flaws\, they prove that Americans could\, in fact\, plan and build fragments of a better society\, which survive and sometimes thrive today in one of the unequal places on earth. Walking the Streets/Walking the Projects takes a hard look at these enclaves\, and asks what a new generation of American socialists might be able to learn from them. \n\n\n\nOur Speakers: \n\n\n\nOwen Hatherley writes regularly on aesthetics and politics for\, among others\, the Architectural Review\, the Calvert Journal\, Dezeen\, the Guardian\, Jacobin\, the London Review of Books and New Humanist. He was culture editor at Tribune magazine and is the author of several books. \n\n\n\nLaura Grace Ford draws on psychogeography\, hauntology and the dérive\, her work interrogates the psychic contours of urban space with a particular focus on subcultural scenes\, marginal political networks and UK club culture. In 2011 Ford’s zine Savage Messiah\, was published Verso and reissued in 2020. Part fragmented novel\, part collage\, the book is both a polemic against the marginalisation of the city’s working class and an exploration of the cracks that open up in urban space. Ford’s practice spans painting\, drawing\, installation\, sound and publishing\, with an eye on the city’s emotional shifts. Ford’s work is held in public collections and is on the UK GCSE and A level syllabus. She has contributed to many publications including The White Review\, Frieze\, Art Review\, Afterall and Dazed\, as well as numerous academic journals. She exhibits and teaches internationally\, and is currently a Somerset House Studios resident. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose book + event entry\, your copy of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or have it delivered\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 7pm\, Event Starts 7:30 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-launch-walking-the-streets-walking-the-projects-owen-hatherly-in-conversation-with-laura-grace-ford/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store,Literary Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Walking-the-street-cover-1.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240716T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240716T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240621T145541Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240621T152743Z UID:57978-1721156400-1721161800@housmans.com SUMMARY:AUTONOMY NOW Book Launch: The Politics of Solidarity: The International Working Men’s Association 1873 with Anthony Zurbrugg DESCRIPTION:AUTONOMY NOW Book Launch: The Politics of Solidarity: The International Working Men’s Association 1873 with Anthony Zurbrugg\n\n\n\n\n\nAutonomy Now present the launch of a new book from Merlin Press exploring the infamous arguments and split within the International Working Men’s Association. The disagreements\, which gravitated between the two positions of Mikhail Bakunin’s horizontalist anarchism and Karl Marx’s hierarchical communism\, have repercussions which reverberate to this day. Join author Anthony Zurbrugg to discuss this infamous historical moment. There will be an illustrated presentation by the author\, outlining the scope and activities of the First International as it worked through difficulties in the aftermath of the Paris Commune of 1871\, The book addresses issues of class\, gender\, authority and ethnicity within labour and progressive movements in in Europe and in the Americas.The book will be available at a special launch price of £20\, down from its list price of £25. Entry to the event is free but please register via RSVP ticket link below\, or optional £5 solidarity ticket “The First International was founded with high ideals: ‘every individual or society joining it\, will recognise morality\, justice and truth as the basis of their conduct toward to all men\, without distinction of nationality\, creed\, or colour.’ By September 1873 it had split.Six regional federations supported one congress\, a few local sections and a Council in New York\, supported another. The congresses\, both meeting in Geneva\, brought together persons inspired by contrasting forms of organisation\, one federalist and mainly based on workplace organisation\, the other centralist\, supporting national electoral parties.Reports and newspaper articles (some translated for the first time) present rival perspectives\, influenced by Bakunin and Marx. These texts review issues of class\, gender\, authority and ethnicity within labour and progressive movements in Europe and the USA. ‘The congress of Geneva of 1873 has reset our Association on its true path\, working people have had enough of chiefs and bosses\, they want to take the management of their affairs into their own hands.’” \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/autonomy-now-book-launch-the-politics-of-solidarity-the-international-working-mens-association-1873-with-anthony-zurbrugg/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Politics-of-solidarity.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240719T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240719T220000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240514T151820Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240719T134246Z UID:56984-1721415600-1721426400@housmans.com SUMMARY:POSTPONED DUE TO SPEAKER COMING DOWN WITH COVID! So Mayer and Kate Hardie in conversation. DESCRIPTION:SADLY THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO A SPEAKER COMING DOWN WITH COVID. WE HOPE TO RESCHEDULE SOON. THOSE WITH TICKETS WILL BE REIMBURSED. \n\n\n\nTHANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING!Housmans are delighted to hand the shop floor over to Kate Hardie and So Mayer who will be talking about about how they both use genre fiction to tell hard truths\, finding queer and feminist form for personal stories. We are also happy to be celebrating the paperback launch of Kate’s brilliant and haunting debut novel This Is Where We Live. Described in The Independent as ‘the most gripping account of motherhood since Rachel Cusk’s A Life’s Work’ This Is Where We Live is a masterful work of contemporary\, and subtle\, gothic fiction: A single mother wakes to blood in her mouth and flesh under her fingernails. A severed toe on the doorstep. A boy missing. But her child needs to get to school. There’s a food shop to be done. Parents evenings\, play dates and pasta for tea. Raising her child alone\, she’s done all she can to protect them. But what if she’s the thing they need protecting from the most? \n\n\n\nKate’s interlocuter for the evening will be the inimitable So Mayer\, whose most recent work is the acclaimed short story collection Truth or Dare: a queer quantum tour through what was\, what is\, what could have been and may yet still come to pass\, a collection that braids high-wire believe-it-or-not memoir with cutting-edge science fiction (or is it?) from alternate timelines that vibrate very close to ours. Truth or dare? Both\, always. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOur speakers: \n\n\n\nKate Hardie is an actor and screenwriter\, her acting work includes The Krays\, Mona Lisa\, the award winning Safe and more recently National Treasure. She has written and directed for Channel Four The BFI and Sky and is due to direct her first feature. She has also taught screen writing and directing\, lectured and advised on representation and diversity within the film industry\, and written essays and articles for the Guardian and Dazed. She is mother to one and lives in London with her husband. This Is Where We Live is her debut novel. \n\n\n\nSo Mayer is a writer\, indie bookseller\, film curator\, and pencil stan. Their most recent books are A Nazi Word for a Nazi Thing (Peninsula\, 2020)\, a short essay on queer art\, censorship and resistance\, and (Litmus\, 2018)\, a poetry sequence about interwar masculinity\, technology and hats\, and their BFI Film Classics on Orlando is forthcoming. Their work across genres and forms has been published internationally\, including in Roxane Gay’s anthology Not that Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture\, in several Criterion DVDs\, and in Ignota Press’s Spells: 21st Century Occult Poetry. Plus their poetry once appeared on hoardings in Dublin. With Adam Zmith\, they collaborated on Unreal Sex for Cipher\, an anthology of queer SFFH\, and on the BBC Sounds podcast The Film We Can’t See\, a tour through queer film history. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose book + event entry\, your copy of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or have it delivered\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 7pm\, Event Starts 7:30 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-talk-kate-hardie-in-conversation-with-so-mayer/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,Feminist event,In Store,Literary Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/preeti-insta-1-1.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240724T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240724T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240622T123343Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240622T135011Z UID:57994-1721847600-1721853000@housmans.com SUMMARY:AUTONOMY NOW Book Launch:'Lifehouse: Taking Care of Ourselves in a World on Fire' with Adam Greenfield DESCRIPTION:AUTONOMY NOW Book Launch: ‘Lifehouse: Taking Care of Ourselves in a World on Fire’ with Adam Greenfield\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAutonomy Now present the launch of a new book from Verso\, an urgent and practical guide to community resilience in the face of climate catastrophe. In this book Adam Greenfield\, author of Radical Technologies\, recovers lessons from the Black Panther survival programs\, the astonishingly effective Occupy Sandy disaster-relief effort and the solidarity networks of crisis-era Greece\, as well as municipalist Spain and autonomous Rojava\, to show how practices of mutual care and local power can help shelter us from a future that often feels like it has no place for us or the values we cherish. \n\n\n\nReviews“Mixing clear-eyed\, unwavering analysis with deep compassion\, Lifehouse offers something much more sustaining than hope: traction”Jenny Odell\, author of Saving Time“When three emergencies — climate\, political and social – build together into the storm of our present we need to start thinking from the ground-up. In this we have no better guide than AG. Lifehouse constructs a much needed\, hands-on strategy for urban care. Read it and start planning.” Eyal Weizman\, author of Hollowland“A succinct\, unflinching assessment of the urgent conditions unfolding around us\, and a nuanced\, practical analysis of why and how we must take up immediate\, local\, collective direct action.”Dean Spade\, author of Mutual AidAbout the authorAdam Greenfield has spent the past quarter-century thinking and working at the intersection of technology\, design and politics with everyday life. Selected in 2013 as Senior Urban Fellow at the LSE Cities centre of the London School of Economics\, he previously taught in New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program and the Urban Design program of the Bartlett\, University College London. His books include Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing\, Urban Computing and Its Discontents\, and the bestsellers Against the Smart City and Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nEntry to the event is free but please register via RSVP ticket link below\, or optional £5 solidarity ticket \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/autonomy-now-book-launchlifehouse-taking-care-of-ourselves-in-a-world-on-fire-with-adam-greenfield/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/lifehouse.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240725T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240725T220000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240710T115525Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240710T164336Z UID:58322-1721934000-1721944800@housmans.com SUMMARY:SISSY ANARCHY presents the release of ‘KNOTS’ by Fi Kube DESCRIPTION:SISSY ANARCHY cranks up the volume on confessional literature with a blistering new journal series. Brace yourself for genre-bending writers who burrow into the recesses of their psyches\, dragging out the raw\, unsettling truths lurking beneath the surface. \n\n\n\nFor our first journal\, we present the release of ‘KNOTS’ by Fi Kube\, an auto-essay journal that reflects on experiences of trans misogyny\, child sexual abuse\, sexual and gendered violence and the trauma this causes. \n\n\n\nTo be presented at Housmans Bookshop with special guest readers Fi Kube \, Hesse K.\, and Biogal\, alongside the release of a new special edition risograph poster bundle with artworks by Bug Shepherd-Barron\, Leomi Sadler\, and Jesse Glazzard.  \n\n\n\nAll proceeds made on the evening from the sale of posters will go to trans healthcare + you can use your posters at Trans Pride! \n\n\n\nABOUT SISSY ANARCHY \n\n\n\nSISSY ANARCHY is a platform about trans queer anarchism by P Eldridge and Caitlin McLoughlin. We understand anarchism as an ideology\, that is\, a set of ideas\, motivations\, ethics\, values\, a structure or system of concepts that have a direct connection with action which influences political practices. We include the abstract and theoretical understandings of anarchism as a basis for free thinking and understanding from activists\, artists\, writers\, poets\, archivists\, and many more\, as a conducive way toward conceiving a model for social transformation; which converges through the lens of trans queer theory and artistic practices against anti-trans\, anti-queer\, capitalist\, colonial\, racist\, ableist\, and discrimination struggles across the world. We strive toward SISSY ANARCHY being a platform that has a political practice which seeks final objectives. @sissyanarchy \n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/sissy-anarchy-presents-the-release-of-knots-by-fi-kube/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/KNOTS_EVENT-GRAPHIC-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240801T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240801T220000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240710T121155Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240801T144230Z UID:58329-1722538800-1722549600@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: SISSY ANARCHY presents ‘Trap Unfolds Me Greedily’ by Misha Honcharenko\, in conversation with writer\, broadcaster and author of ‘This Ragged Grace’\, Octavia Bright. DESCRIPTION:Housmans is delighted to welcome SISSY ANARCHY and Misha Honcharenko to the shop\, to celebrate the publication release of Misha’s first novel\, ‘Trap Unfolds Me Greedily.’ Writer\, broadcaster and author of ‘This Ragged Grace’\, Octavia Bright joins for a live conversation with Misha. \n\n\n\nAbout the book:Ukrainian artist and poet Misha Honcharenko is a refugee fleeing the war on Ukraine during the ongoing militant invasion of Russian forces. Whilst writing Trap Unfolds Me Greedily\, he is the primary caretaker of his mother who suffers with severe health complications and is hospitalised. As a young queer man\, Misha sets out on a path of discovery in the face of continued atrocities and displacement. His strength to brave such abject horrors makes its way into his prose\, which is relentless\, merciless\, leaving no reader resolved. \n\n\n\nWritten with a deep intelligence and a fierce willingness to understand that which terrorises\, Trap Unfolds Me Greedily follows Misha as he succumbs to new forms of grief whilst navigating the complexities of the immigration system\, his queerness\, war crimes\, violence\, and bereaving the slow passing of his closest relative and protector\, his mother. With each phrase\, he turns toward the atrocities to make sense of his life\, weaving stories that sear with intimate complexity. \n\n\n\nIt’s deeper than raw and unflinching\, Trap Unfolds Me Greedily hurts as it rustles the literary canon and binds you to the suffering with Misha’s original voice; where he invites you to be witness to such powerful forms of sorrow\, asking: what does it mean to build a life of one’s own from the rubble\, in the wake of what remains? \n\n\n\nBios: \n\n\n\nMisha Honcharenko is a Ukrainian queer artist and writer. He started his Instagram profile as a form of art diary\, combining weirdness in context of objects and landscapes\, exploring himself via photography for over a decade now. Skin of Nocturnal Apple is his first poetry collection published by Pilot Press in 2023. Trap Unfolds Me Greedily is his upcoming debut novel published by SISSY ANARCHY. @michgonch \n\n\n\nOctavia Bright is a writer and broadcaster. Her memoir\, This Ragged Grace\, is published by Canongate and is out in paperback now. @octavia.bright \n\n\n\nSISSY ANARCHY is a platform about trans queer anarchism by P Eldridge and Caitlin McLoughlin. We understand anarchism as an ideology\, that is\, a set of ideas\, motivations\, ethics\, values\, a structure or system of concepts that have a direct connection with action which influences political practices. We include the abstract and theoretical understandings of anarchism as a basis for free thinking and understanding from activists\, artists\, writers\, poets\, archivists\, and many more\, as a conducive way toward conceiving a model for social transformation; which converges through the lens of trans queer theory and artistic practices against anti-trans\, anti-queer\, capitalist\, colonial\, racist\, ableist\, and discrimination struggles across the world. We strive toward SISSY ANARCHY being a platform that has a political practice which seeks final objectives. @sissyanarchyhttps://sissyanarchy.substack.com/ \n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-launch-sissy-anarchy-presents-trap-unfolds-me-greedily-by-misha-honcharenko-in-conversation-with-writer-broadcaster-and-author-of-this-ragged-grace-octavia/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store,Literary Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Misha-Launch-Graphic-2.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240824T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240824T213000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240803T131849Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240809T130946Z UID:59053-1724526000-1724535000@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: Kaisa Saarinen: 'Maitonaut' DESCRIPTION:Housmans are delighted to be welcoming the Finnish poet Kaisa Saarinen\, and a host of special guest readers\, to the shop to lift-off her new hybrid collection of poetry and fiction Maitonaut (after the Finnish word for milk). Published by new_sinews editions\, a new independent press edited by Steve Barbaro in Chicago.  \n\n\n\nThere is escapism\, yes — but then there is transcendence. And the more MAITONAUT self-reveals the more we see hints of full blown eternity hidden within the blur of modern everydayness. Mixing poems and fiction and narrators with the fluidity of water becoming ice then vapor\, Kaisa Saarinen’s second collection self-escapes somehow in the midst of its very self-materialization. \n\n\n\nKaisa’s performance of Maitonaut fragments will be accompanied by guest readings from JD Howse\, Michael Kabasele & Bart Seng Wen Long.Our Readers: \n\n\n\nKaisa Saarinen is a former feral farmgirl currently based in London. She has previously published one collection of poetry\, fiction & photography (Voideuse\, Feral Dove 2022) and one novel (Weather Underwater\, Bellows Press 2023). JD Howse was born in Lancashire and raised in London. He has a BA and MA in English and Creative Writing from Royal Holloway\, University of London and works in Print Production. He works across poetry\, prose\, collage\, and film\, and his work has appeared in numerous magazines and journals. His poetry collections include Just Meat Not God\, Noises Again\, and This is a Dagger\, and his debut novel Distraction! is forthcoming. \n\n\n\nMichael Kabasele is a poet based in London. She writes poetry absolutely everywhere\, in locations including (but not limited to): at tables in pubs\, locked in the bathrooms of public areas\, by rivers\, by the sea\, on national rail trains\, on the Tube\, and even in her bedroom (sometimes). She writes poetry about absolutely everything— sometimes earnest\, sometimes gross\, sometimes sexy\, but always quite odd. Michael is a weird little girl\, and always has been. Above all\, though\, Michael is a poet. \n\n\n\nBart Seng Wen Long is an artist-filmmaker and independent curator. His practice involves moving images\, photography and performance\, and explores the political economy of desire through processes of fetishisation. His short story Queer Cinema was published in excerpt by Sticky Fingers. Bart is currently working on a long form research-based art project about rubber in Southeast Asia.  \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + event entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 7pm\, Event Starts 7:30Feel free to Bring Your Own Bottle! \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-launch-kaisa-saarinen-maitonaut/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,In Store,Literary Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/MaitonautCover.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240830T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240830T213000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240804T113424Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240827T161102Z UID:59070-1725044400-1725053400@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK TALK: EXAM NATION: Sammy Wright in conversation with Ed Vainker DESCRIPTION:Housmans look forward to welcoming teacher\, and former member of the Social Mobility Commission\, Sammy Wright. Sammy will be discussing his latest book Exam Nation: a first hand account of the struggles student and teachers face in the relentless pursuit of performance table ranking. \n\n\n\nIn Exam Nation\, Sammy asks the fundamental question; what is school really for? Current assessment infrastructure bases student merit and access to FE/HE almost entirely on pressurised performance. Sammy argues that exams function better as benchmarks for progress – like driving tests – than a definitive dictation on what doors open for whom. He asks: how best do we support those children who show an inclination towards vocational work\, and how should educators engage when education isn’t valued in the home? \n\n\n\nSammy interviews parents\, students and colleagues to get to the root\, digging into community\, complex developmental needs\, familial support structures and trauma (all possessing the ability to make or break a child’s performance). He isn’t anti-exams – recognising the true need for assessment – but believes schools are much more effective when focused on community integration\, fostering genuine engagement with subjects\, and preparing students for the realities of adulthood. Drawing upon twenty years of experience\, Exam Nation is hopeful as it is at times heart-breaking – a rallying cry for cross-sector critical evaluation. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + event entry’ or ‘special bundle’\, your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 7pm\, Event Starts 7:30 \n\n\n\nFeel free to Bring Your Own Bottle! \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-talk-sammy-wright-exam-nation/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/9781847927521-jacket-large.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240908T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240908T213000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240823T131216Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240906T160327Z UID:59601-1725822000-1725831000@housmans.com SUMMARY:An Evening with Calvin John Smiley DESCRIPTION:Housmans are extremely excited to welcome the inimitable scholar\, sociologist and criminologist Dr Calvin John Smiley to the shop to discuss his work. Calvin’s brilliant writing concerns prison abolition\, race\, inequality\, and social justice and these will be the primary themes of discussion on the evening. He will be focusing especially on his two most recent book\, Defund: conversations toward abolition and Purgatory Citizenship: Reentry\, Race and Abolition. \n\n\n\nCalvin will be joined by Dr Becka Hudson from Birkbeck’s School of Historical Studies. Her work uses history\, anthropology and criminology to look at the interaction between psychiatry and imprisonment. \n\n\n\nThe evening will consist of a discussion which will then be followed by an audience Q&A. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + event entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 7pm\, Event Starts 7:30P.S. BYOB \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/an-evening-with-calvin-john-smiley/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/preeti-insta-2.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240918T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240918T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240816T122421Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240917T120218Z UID:59414-1726686000-1726691400@housmans.com SUMMARY:‘The Racket: A Rogue Reporter vs The American Empire’ with Matt Kennard DESCRIPTION:‘The Racket: A Rogue Reporter vs The American Empire’ with Matt Kennard (SOLD OUT)\n\n\n\n\n\nHousmans welcome back investigative journalist Matt Kennard to discuss the new edition of this vital and staggering book\, which exposes the dark nature of modern geopolitics and neo-imperialism. \n\n\n\nWhile working for the Financial Times\, Matt Kennard had unbridled access to the crème de la crème of the global elite. From slanging matches with Henry Kissinger to afternoon coffees with the man who captured Che Guevara\, Kennard spent four years gathering extraordinarily honest testimony from the horse’s mouth on how the global economic system works away from the convenient myths. It left him with only one conclusion: the world as we know it is run by an exclusive class of American racketeers who operate with virtually unlimited weapons and money\, and a reach much too close to home. \n\n\n\nOwing to the very nature of the Financial Times\, however\, Kennard was not able to publish these findings as part of his day job. Enter The Racket\, now in a fully updated second edition. This tell-all book\, reported from all corners of the world\, will transform everything you thought you knew about how the world works-and in whose interests. Kennard reports not only from across the United States\, but from the United Kingdom\, the Caribbean\, Latin America\, Africa\, and the Middle East. In doing so he provides startlingly clear and concrete evidence of unchecked\, high-level\, interrelated systems of exploitation all over the world. At the same time\, through encounters with high-profile opponents of the racket such as Thom Yorke\, Damon Albarn\, and Gael García Bernal\, Kennard offers a glimpse of a developing resistance\, which needs to win. \n\n\n\nNow more relevant than ever\, this 2nd edition contains a new preface by the author and a new foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges. \n\n\n\nThere will be a reading from the book and discussion\, followed by a Q&A.Matt Kennard is co-founder\, and chief investigator\, at Declassified UK\, a news outlet investigating British foreign policy. He was a fellow and then director at the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) in London\, UK. He has worked as a staff writer for the Financial Times in Washington\, DC\, New York\, and London. He is the author of several acclaimed books including Irregular Army (2012)\, and co-author (with Claire Provost) of Silent Coup (2023). \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose book + event entry\, your copy of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or have it delivered\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com.Housmans cannot sell alcohol but please feel free to bring a bottle! \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nSOLD OUT! There are no more tickets available for this event.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/the-racket-a-rogue-reporter-vs-the-american-empire-with-matt-kennard-2/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/RACKET-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20240920T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20240920T213000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240830T151115Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240919T142655Z UID:59785-1726858800-1726867800@housmans.com SUMMARY:Resisting Mediocrity: Remaking the University DESCRIPTION:It’s not easy being made redundant. It’s an act of violent separation. Over the past decade\, thousands of lecturers and researchers have experienced this attack on their income\, autonomy and dignity; thousands more\, at around 70 universities\, are currently at risk of losing their jobs. Universities are in crisis – and 40% of institutions are projected to be in financial deficit this year.  \n\n\n\nUniversity bosses lack the vision necessary to do anything but mimic their competitors. The new Labour government\, like its Tory predecessor\, is sanguine about job cuts\, course closures and even university bankruptcies. The leadership of the University and College Union seems impotent in the face of the onslaught\, happy to embrace a mediocre and exploitative system of higher education.  \n\n\n\nEven as many alternative spaces of accessible learning\, such as trade unions\, have faced huge challenges\, every year sees fresh attempts at political education. In reading groups\, community art projects\, trade unions\, social centres\, and religious spaces\, people continue to engage in collective self-education. \n\n\n\nThis event will explore the contours of the crisis in universities\, and consider possible routes out of the mess made by neoliberal management. We will ask\, what would education look like without the profit motive? How can we resist the university’s relentless mediocrity in order to build something better\, whether on campus or beyond? \n\n\n\nOUR PANEL \n\n\n\nSita Balani is a UCU branch committee member at Queen Mary University of London. She will talk about political education\, including Study and Struggle\, a course/reading list designed to be used both inside and outside of the university. \n\n\n\nNicholas Beuret is a member of inCommons\, a collective project which is bringing together scholars\, activists and organisers to offer residential courses on commoning\, free to students and outside of the university. \n\n\n\nZara Dinnen is branch co-chair at Queen Mary University of London UCU\, where she has been involved in political education in meetings\, pickets and beyond. She is co-author of the essay “How to Stop a University”. \n\n\n\nBecca Harrison contributes to UCU committees (OU branch\, national exec\, higher education\, equalities) and organises against institutional and gender-based violences. She is the author of ‘Fuck the Canon\,’ which calls for a remaking of film and media studies\, and is a contributor in Al Jazeera’s ‘Degrees of Abuse’ series. \n\n\n\nDavid Harvie was a UCU organiser at University of Leicester until being made redundant – part of an attack on trade union organisation – in 2021. Now a deprofessionalised intellectual\, he’s co-author of Shaping for Mediocrity: The Cancellation of Critical Thinking at Our Universities (2024) and\, since June 2023\, has been UCU’s (national) honorary treasurer. \n\n\n\nRehana Zaman has been a UCU executive committee member at Goldsmiths since 2021\, most recently in the role of co-President. She is also an artist and filmmaker often engaging issues around labour and immigration through collective forms of practice. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + event entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 7pm\, Event Starts 7:30 \n\n\n\nFeel free to BYOB. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/resisting-mediocrity-remaking-the-university/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,Discussion group,In Store,Literary Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/jhp6617ef4523e98-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241004T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241004T213000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240906T163344Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241003T110524Z UID:59901-1728068400-1728077400@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: Your Right To Protest by Christian Weaver DESCRIPTION:Housmans are very excited to be welcoming Christian Weaver to shop to celebrate the official launch of his vital new book Your Right To Protest. Christian is a human rights barrister\, social justice campaigner. His first book The Law In 60 Seconds: A Pocket Guide To Your Rights\, has been a long time staple of the Housmans catalogue and one of our bestselling titles\, it is an essential and accessible guide for those interested in activism and direct action. In Your Right To Protest he expands on many of the themes explored in the first book and brings together everything you need to know when taking a stand. Whether you are marching on the streets or making your voice heard from your own front room\, organising in your workplace or writing a letter to your MP\, this essential guide equips you with your fundamental rights and the laws that protect you – as well as the ones you might inadvertently break. \n\n\n\nFrom attending a demonstration to when the police can – and can’t – stop you\, this book has your back. In it\, you’ll find up-to-date information on a whole range of topics\, including: \n\n\n\n– Public assembly and who to notify when you’re on the move \n\n\n\n– Striking in the workplace and action your employer can take against you \n\n\n\n– Direct action and when it crosses over into trespass \n\n\n\n– Stop and search and how to access help if you are arrested \n\n\n\n– Online activism and what to do if you accidentally libel someone \n\n\n\nFor activists new and old alike\, Your Right to Protest is the indispensable guide to using your voice for what you believe in. \n\n\n\nThis is likely to be a very popular event and advance booking is strongly recommended. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + event entry’ or ‘special bundle’\, your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 7pm\, Event Starts 7:30 \n\n\n\nFeel free to Bring Your Own Bottle! \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-launch-your-right-to-protest-by-christian-weaver/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Your-Right-to-Protest-cover-scaled-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241019T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241019T213000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240912T154300Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240912T154304Z UID:60215-1729364400-1729373400@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: BRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY by Benjamin Barson DESCRIPTION:This is gonna be a good one…Jazz! Theory! LIVE MUSIC!! \n\n\n\nHousmans will be hosting the wonderful scholar and musician Benjamin Barson for the official UK launch of his seminal new book\, Brassroots Democracy: Maroon Ecologies and the Jazz Commons. \n\n\n\nA new understanding of the birth of jazz through a fine-grained social history of early African American musicians. Brassroots Democracy recasts the birth of jazz\, unearthing vibrant narratives of New Orleans musicians to reveal how early jazz was inextricably tied to the mass mobilization of freedpeople during Reconstruction and the decades that followed. Benjamin Barson presents a “music history from below\,” following the musicians as they built communes\, performed at Civil Rights rallies\, and participated in general strikes. Perhaps most importantly\, Barson locates the first emancipatory revolution in the Americas—Haiti—as a nexus for cultural and political change in nineteenth-century Louisiana. In dialogue with the work of recent historians who have inverted traditional histories of Latin American and Caribbean independence by centering the influence of Haitian activists abroad\, this work traces the impact of Haitian culture in New Orleans and its legacy in movements for liberation. \n\n\n\nBrassroots Democracy demonstrates how Black musicians infused participatory music practice with innovative forms of grassroots democracy. Late nineteenth-century Black brass bands and activists rehearsed these participatory models through collective performance that embodied the democratic ethos of Black Reconstruction. Termed “Brassroots Democracy\,” this fusion of political and musical spheres revolutionized both. Brassroots Democracy illuminates the Black Atlantic struggles that informed music-as-world-making from the Haitian Revolution through Reconstruction to the jazz revolution. The work theorizes the roots of the New Orleans brass band tradition in the social relations grown in maroon ecologies across the Americas. Their fruits contributed to the socio-sonic commons of the music we call jazz today. \n\n\n\nBenjamin will be in conversation with seasoned music broadcaster and writer John Stevenson and WILL ALSO be putting his theories into practice and performing live music for us. Advanced booking strongly recommended. This is going to be part book talk part concert\, as always\, please feel free to BYOB. \n\n\n\n“Musician\, composer\, scholar Benjamin Barson places the origins of the music dubbed ‘jazz’ in its rightful place: the Black Radical Tradition. Deftly braiding the political and cultural histories of revolutionary Haiti\, Black Reconstruction\, the laboring and creative lives of workers and peasants of the Black Atlantic\, African and Indigenous memory in song\, story\, and dance\, Black feminist blues\, and resistance to racial capitalism\, he weaves a powerful story of how Black revolt and brass bands transformed the port city of New Orleans into a portal to musical revolution. From now on\, Brassroots Democracy should be our starting point—both for understanding the past and imagining an emancipatory future.” – Robin D.G. Kelley \n\n\n\nOUR SPEAKERS \n\n\n\nBenjamin Barson is a historian\, baritone saxophonist\, and political activist. He is an assistant professor of music at Bucknell University. His work has been published in Black Power Afterlives: The Enduring Significance of the Black Panther Party (2020)\, Routledge Handbook on Jazz and Gender (2021) and Routledge Guide to Ecosocialism (2021). \n\n\n\nJohn Stevenson is a seasoned communications professional\, encompassing freelance broadcasting and writing for diverse publications including The Guardian\, The Independent\, The Times\, Caribbean Beat and UK Jazz News. An alumnus of the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill) and King’s College London\, John has an abiding interest in arts and culture from around the world\, especially the music of Africa and the African diaspora. He currently co-produces and co-hosts the monthly music radio programme\, Nighthawks at the Virtual Diner\, on www.thethursdaynightshow.com \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + event entry’ or ‘special bundle’\, your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 7pm\, Event Starts 7:30 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-launch-brassroots-democracy-by-benjamin-barson/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store,Literary Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Cover.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241023T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241023T220000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240926T152424Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240926T152428Z UID:60799-1729710000-1729720800@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: 'The Picture of Contented New Wealth' - Tariq Godard in conversation with Alex Niven DESCRIPTION:It’s spooky season! Help us celebrate All Hallows Eve by welcoming Tariq Godard to the shop for the (re)launch of his acclaimed work of political horror: The Picture of Contented New Wealth. One of the most important and era defining satires on Neoliberal Britain written during the dying days of New Labour\, and anticipating\, in it’s send-up of Thatcher’s premier\, the cultural brutality of the Austerity years\, The Picture of Contented New Wealth is as a vital and haunting now as it’s ever been. \n\n\n\nIn the brilliant red doom of a Hampshire sunset\, Brigit Conti can hear a voice behind her ears that is not her own. Bed-bound and complaining of a rare bone disease that no doctor can diagnose\, her husband fears that the house they have purchased is a portal through which an older\, more malign energy has passed\, possessing his wife and son. Through their successive deterioration\, his secular and agnostic world-view undergoes a metamorphosis\, drawing him to a strange man from the hills: the Rector\, their unlikely saviour. \n\n\n\nOr are he and his family merely victims of their own self-serving yuppie way of life? \n\n\n\nThe Picture of Contented New Wealth is a gothic tragedy set in the 1980s\, bringing proper characterization and a literary sensibility to the traditional horror story. Its mix of generic elements and mystical realism deal with the irreducibility of evil and its successful normalization in to our daily and dominant reality. \n\n\n\nTARIQ GODDARD is the author of seven novels including his 2002 debut\, the Whitbread (latterly Costa) Prize shortlisted ‘Homage to a Firing Squad’ & 2017’s ‘Nature and Necessity’. He has been nominated for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize\, & the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize & has co-edited two collections of essays\, ‘The Repeater Book of the Occult’ & ‘The Repeater Book of Heroism’. His last book ‘High John the Conqueror’ was published by Repeater Books in 2022. \n\n\n\nTariq will be joined in conversation with ALEX NIVEN. Alex Niven comes from the north-east of England. He writes regularly for the Guardian\, Tribune and New Statesman\, and has also contributed to publications including the New York Times\, the Independent\, Pitchfork\, The Face and VICE. He is the author of New Model Island (Repeater\, 2019)\, and The North Will Rise Again (Bloomsbury). He is currently Lecturer in English Literature at Newcastle University\, he helped to start the radical publisher Repeater Books in 2014. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + event entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 7pm\, Event Starts 7:30. \n\n\n\nPLEASE FEEL FREE TO BYOB \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-launch-the-picture-of-contented-new-wealth-tariq-godard-in-conversation-with-alex-niven/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,Literary Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/61GhOjBYsgL._SL1262_.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241030T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241030T220000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20240917T105826Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241030T151617Z UID:60351-1730314800-1730325600@housmans.com SUMMARY:An evening with Richard Seymour DESCRIPTION:Housmans are thrilled to be welcoming Richard Seymour to the shop for a double book launch! Richard is one of the country’s pre-eminent leftist thinkers and writers and we are extremely lucky to help celebrate his latest polemic\, from Verso\, Disaster Nationalism: The Downfall of Liberal Civilization as well as the new paperback re-issue of The Twittering Machine: How Capitalism Stole Our Social Life\, from Indigo Press. \n\n\n\nIn Disaster Nationalism\, Seymour argues that the rise of the new far right has left the world grappling with a profound misunderstanding. While the spotlight often shines on the actions of charismatic leaders such as Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro\, the true peril lies elsewhere. Defeating these people will not stem the tide driving them forward. They are merely the embodiment of profound forces that are rarely understood. Propelled through the vast networks of social media and fueled by far-right influencers\, enthralled by images of disaster and fantasies of doom\, they have emerged from a reservoir of societal despair\, fear\, and isolation. Within this seething cauldron\, we witness not only the surge of far-right political movements but also the sparks of individual and collective violence against perceived enemies\, from ‘lone wolf’ killers to terrifying pogroms. Should a new fascism emerge\, it will coalesce from these very elements. This is disaster nationalism. Seymour delves deep into this alarming development in world politics\, dissecting its roots\, its influencers\, and the threats it poses. With meticulous analysis and compelling storytelling\, Seymour offers a stark warning. The battle against disaster nationalism is not just political; it is a struggle for our collective soul and the future of civilization itself. Unless we understand the deeper forces propelling the far-right resurgence\, we have little chance of stopping it. \n\n\n\nIn surrealist artist Paul Klee’s The Twittering Machine\, the bird-song of a diabolical machine acts as bait to lure humankind into a pit of damnation. Seymour argues that this is a chilling metaphor for our relationship with social media. Former social media executives tell us that the system is an addiction-machine. We are users\, waiting for our next hit as we like\, comment and share. We write to the machine as individuals\, but it responds by aggregating our fantasies\, desires and frailties into data\, and returning them to us as a commodity experience. \n\n\n\nThrough journalism\, psychoanalytic reflection and insights from users\, developers\, security experts and others\, Seymour probes the human side of the machine\, asking what we’re getting out of it\, and what we’re getting into. \n\n\n\nFor the first half of the event Richard will be in conversation and discuss the themes and arguments of both books\, before this broadens out into an audience Q&A. After this we encourage milling about and then usually head to the pub. \n\n\n\nFeel free to BYOB. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + event entry’ or ‘special bundle’\, your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 7pm\, Event Starts 7:30 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/an-evening-with-richard-seymour/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/preeti-insta-3-1.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241120T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241120T210000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20241008T130118Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241120T125325Z UID:61132-1732129200-1732136400@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH How the Railways Will Fix the Future: Rediscovering the Essential Brilliance of the Iron Road by Gareth Dennis DESCRIPTION:Please join us for what is promising to be a really engaging and informative talk with railway engineer and transport policy specialist Gareth Dennis. His new book How the Railways Will Fix the Future: Rediscovering the Essential Brilliance of the Iron Road shows why the railways are key to the fight for a better world for us all. \n\n\n\nThe world’s railways were almost entirely created by capital and empire for extraction and exploitation\, so what right do they have to exist and how can they be harnessed for good? Railway engineer and writer Gareth Dennis builds a case not simply for railways as a common good\, but argues that railways are a critical tool for humanity to survive and thrive. Whether it’s the power of organised labour\, the threats and opportunities of new technology\, the distribution of democratic power or the calamitous impacts of climate change\, railways can act as a lens through which to understand the future and the part they can play in it.Dennis takes us across the globe\, from Virgin Hyperloop’s abandoned test track in the Nevada desert to the overcrowded stations of the North of England\, exploring how railways can shape and inform choices about our future\, and in turn detailing how taking a long-term view can help shape transport for the better. With his deep knowledge of railways and his unique view of history and politics\, he equips us with the tools to answer those imperative questions: what and who should our railways be for? \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + event entry’ or ‘special bundle’\, your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 7pm\, Event Starts 7:15 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-launch-how-the-railways-will-fix-the-future-rediscovering-the-essential-brilliance-of-the-iron-road-by-gareth-dennis/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/How-The-Railways-Will-Fix-The-Future-cover.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20241206T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20241206T210000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20241023T151934Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241204T171315Z UID:61475-1733511600-1733518800@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: 'Cities Made Differently' by DAVID GRAEBER & NIKA DUBROVSKY DESCRIPTION:We are honored to be welcoming Nika Dubrovsky to Housmans on December 6th to celebrate the publication of a marvelous new text\, co-written with the late David Graeber\, called Cities Made Differently. Joining Nika in conversation will the inimitable organiser and writer James Schneider. \n\n\n\nFull of playful graphics\, provocative questions\, and curious facts\, this book asks what makes a city and how we might make them differently. \n\n\n\nWhat makes a city a city? Who says? Drafted over decades out of a dialogue between artist and author Nika Dubrovsky\, the late anthropologist David Graeber\, and Nika’s then four-year-old son\, this delightful and provocative book Cities Made Differently opens a space for invention and collaboration. Fusing anthropology\, literature\, play\, and drawing\, the book is essentially a visual essay that asks us to reconsider our ideas about cities and the people who inhabit them. Drawing us into a world of history and myth\, science and imagination\, Graeber and Dubrovsky invite us to rethink the worlds we inhabit—because we can\, and nothing is too strange or too wonderful to be true. \n\n\n\nWith inspired pictures and prompts\, Cities Made Differently asks what a city is\, or could be\, or once was. Sleeping at the bottom of the ocean? Buried in lava? What were those cities of long ago\, and what will the cities of the future be? They might be virtual\, ruled by AI\, or islands of beautiful architecture afloat in seas of greenery. They might be utopian places of refuge or refugee camps as far as the eye can see. On land\, underground or aloft\, excavated or imagined\, cities\, this book tells us in provocative and funny ways\, can be anything we want them to be—and what we want them to be can tell us something about who we are\, what it is to be human\, and what’s possible when we make way for wonder. \n\n\n\nPlease feel free to bring your own drinks. We look forward to seeing you and contemplating together what a city is\, and what it could be\, and honoring the memory of our lost and much loved comrade David. \n\n\n\nAdvanced booking strongly recommended. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + event entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 7pm\, event starts circa 7:15. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-launch-cities-made-differently-by-david-graeber-nika-dubrovsky/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store,Literary Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/91voyX7S6L._SL1500_.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250111T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250111T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20241219T112821Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241219T123228Z UID:63216-1736622000-1736627400@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK TALK: Reasons to Rebel by Sheila Rowbotham DESCRIPTION:Please join us for a evening with celebrated socialist-feminist Sheila Rowbotham\n\n\n\n\n\nWe are thrilled to welcome Sheila Rowbotham back to Housmans and to celebrate the latest volume of her memoirs\, Reasons to Rebel: My Memories of the 1980s\, a defiant\, thrilling\, at times greatly moving\, reflection on the the Thatcher era. It was the worst of times\, it was the best of times… \n\n\n\n“The 1980s were a shock. Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government battered left movements\, painfully disrupted working-class peoples’ livelihoods and pressed down on many groups who faced discrimination. There was no shortage of reasons to rebel. Along with thousands upon thousands of others I opposed not just the repressive laws\, but the fundamental tenets of the new right. Hanging on to visions of creative utopias\, we strove for new ways of organizing and relating to others and we sought to connect a liberatory sexual politics with rebellions against many kinds of inequality. We argued wrote\, campaigned\, demonstrated\, picketed.We established alternative cooperative projects\, secured reforms through local government and made direct international links. Resourceful resistance slowed down the onslaught but we were contending not simply with the doctrinal resolve of a right-wing government. We faced something larger\, something that could not be voted out – a more ruthless global capitalism\, geared to profits which was prepared to dump hard-won social provision and neglect to conserve even basic infrastructure.” \n\n\n\nSheila Rowbotham is an English socialist feminist theorist and historian. She is the author of many books in the field of women’s studies\, including Hidden from History (1973)\, Beyond the Fragments (1979)\, A Century of Women (1997) and Threads Through Time (1999)\, as well as the 2021 memoir Daring to Hope: My Life in the 1970s. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + event entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 7pm \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-talk-reasons-to-rebel-by-sheila-rowbotham/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Sheil-Rowbotham-1.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250212T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250212T210000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20250113T110959Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250212T175101Z UID:63617-1739386800-1739394000@housmans.com SUMMARY:Celebrating David Graeber DESCRIPTION:On February 12\, 2025 — his birthday — we will be celebrating the life and thought of the much missed David Graeber. Joining us will be David’s friend\, the writer\, activist\, and organizer James Schneider and the philosopher Sophie Scott Brown\, who has recently written a new foreword for the 20th-anniversary reissue of Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology. Joining us from New York will be David’s wife and long term collaborator\, Nika Dubrovsky. James\, Sophie and Nika will discuss David’s life and work\, his principals of anarchism and anthropology\, before we open things up for a wider conversation with our audiences in London and New York. \n\n\n\nThis a free event. There is limited capacity in the shop so please RSVP below to ensure attendance. If your plans change and you are unable to attend please email us at shop@housmans.com so your space can be made available to someone else. \n\n\n\nThis event is a celebration and in the spirit of that you are free to byob. A small amount of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks will be available at Housmans too. \n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/celebrating-david-graeber/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,Literary Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/avif:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/David-Graeber-009-1.avif END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250226T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250226T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20250114T123508Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250224T102110Z UID:63649-1740596400-1740601800@housmans.com SUMMARY:Book Launch: PINK-PILLED: Women and The Far Right DESCRIPTION:Housmans are very excited to be hosting the London launch for this daring investigation into how women are recruited by the far right online. \n\n\n\nAs the far right has gained popularity and acceptance around the world\, its ranks have swelled with an unlikely category of members: women. \n\n\n\nWomen play significant roles in far-right movements\, acting as propagandists\, prizes to be won and mother-warriors of the nation. But up to now their activities have been largely overlooked. In Pink-pilled\, journalist Lois Shearing interviews leading experts and infiltrates communities of tradwives and femtrolls to provide a cutting-edge account of how the far right uses the internet to recruit women. Shining a light on women’s experiences within these movements\, Shearing reveals horrifying examples of misogyny and violence. \n\n\n\nUnderstanding how and why women join movements that explicitly aim to restrict their autonomy is essential if we want to fight back. Pink-pilled offers key insights for countering women’s radicalisation and building communities resistant to far-right thought. \n\n\n\nLois Shearing is a freelance journalist and author. They are the author of Bi the Way: The Bisexual Guide to Life (2021) and the co-editor of It Ain’t Over Til the Bisexual Speaks: An Anthology of Bisexual Voices (2024). Their writing on sex\, sexuality\, gender\, relationships\, digital culture\, and politics has appeared in Cosmopolitan\, The Independent\, Mashable\, The Metro\, and Gay Times\, among others. \n\n\n\nWe are delighted to welcome back to Housmans the brilliant Maya Oppenheim\, former Women’s Correspondent for The Independent and author of The Pocket Guide to the Patriarchy\, to join Lake in conversation. The two will talk about roughly 45 minutes\, followed by a Q&A. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + event entry’ or ‘special bundle’\, your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-launch-pink-pilled-women-and-the-far-right/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,Feminist event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/9781526170699.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250301T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250301T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20250128T153445Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250128T153449Z UID:64098-1740855600-1740861000@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: Christopher Hill:The Life of a Radical Historian by Michael Braddick DESCRIPTION:“A splendid biography. Even those who know Hill’s work will learn a great deal. Braddick reveals Hill as a profound historical thinker and a vital voice in contemporary discussions of the English Revolution.”  John Rees\, author of The Fiery Spirits \n\n\n\n\nWe are delighted to welcome Professor Michel Braddick to Housmans to discuss his brilliant\, facinating and wonderfully detailed biography of the great Marxist Historian Christopher Hill. \n\n\n\nChristopher Hill was one of the leading historians of his generation. His work across more than fifteen books and dozens of articles fundamentally rewrote the way we understand the English Revolution and the development of the modern British state. While his career brought many of the trappings of establishment respectability — he was both a Fellow of the British Academy and the Master of Balliol College\, Oxford — he was also seen as a threat to that very same establishment. Under surveillance by the security services for decades\, in the 1980s Hill was publicly accused of having been a Soviet agent during the war. His was a Cold War life\, as well as a scholarly one.In this brilliant work of biography\, Michael Braddick charts Hill’s development from his abandonment of the respectable\, provincial Methodism of his youth\, through his embrace of Marxism\, to his membership and eventual break with the Communist Party\, as well as his celebrated intellectual career. While many of his books — not least the thrilling work of historical resurrection The World Turned Upside Down and God’s Englishman\, his classic biography of Oliver Cromwell — are still widely read and admired\, his intellectual reputation was damaged by sustained academic criticism in the politically charged atmosphere of the 1980s.Braddick’s judicious biography not only situates Hill’s life and work in their historical context but seeks to rescue Hill for a new generation of readers. \n\n\n\nMichael Braddick is a Fellow of All Souls College\, Oxford\, having previously worked at the University of Sheffield. He has held academic positions and visiting Fellowships in the United States\, Australia\, France\, and Germany. He has written extensively on state formation\, the English Revolution and political engagement and agency in early modern England\, Ireland and the British Atlantic. His books include The Common Freedom of the People: John Lilburne and the English Revolution\, God’s Fury\, England’s Fire: A New History of the English Civil Wars\, and A Useful History of Britain: The Politics of Getting Things Done. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + event entry’ or ‘special bundle’\, your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-launch-christopher-hillthe-life-of-a-radical-historian-by-michael-braddick/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/81dGZGsVUYL._SY466_.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250308T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250308T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20250122T125714Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250226T152254Z UID:63862-1741460400-1741465800@housmans.com SUMMARY:Book Talk: Celebrating 35 years of 'The Sexual Politics of Meat' With Carol J. Adams DESCRIPTION:The inimitable Carol J Adams will be returning to Housmans this Spring to join us in celebrating 35 years since the publication of her seminal work of Feminist-Vegan critical theory The Sexual Politics of Meat. \n\n\n\nFirst published in 1990\, Carol J. Adams’ revolutionary work has engaged\, enraged\, inspired and challenged readers with its exploration of the interplay between society’s ingrained cultural misogyny and its obsession with eating animals and masculinity. This iconic book\, referenced in rock songs\, feminist artwork and even a Law and Order SVU episode\, continues to change the lives of its readers today.Published to celebrate the book’s 35th anniversary\, this Bloomsbury Revelations edition includes a new introduction that reflects on how recent events continue to prove the relevance of this influential work. \n\n\n\nCarol will be in conversation with Dr Corey Wrenn from the University of Kent. They will discuss The Sexual Politics of Meat at length\, focusing on how its themes still resonate today\, what has changed and what has stayed the same. This will be followed by a Q&A. \n\n\n\nOur Speakers \n\n\n\nCarol Adams is a feminist-vegan advocate\, activist\, and independent scholar and the author of numerous books including The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory. It has been translated into German\, Chinese\, Japanese\, Korean\, Turkish\, Portuguese\, Polish\, Spanish\, and French. She is also the co-editor of several important anthologies\, including most recently Ecofeminism: Feminist Intersections with Other Animals and the Earth (with Lori Gruen) and The Good it Promises; The Harm it Causes: Critical Essays on Effective Altruism published in 2023 (co-edited with Alice Crary and Lori Gruen). The Carol J. Adams Reader: Writings and Conversations 1995-2015 appeared in the fall of 2016. \n\n\n\nShe has a Masters of Divinity from Yale University. In the 1970s\, alongside her spouse\, the Rev. Bruce Buchanan\, she started a Hotline for Battered Women in Western New York. She is the author of Woman-Battering (1995) in Fortress Press’s Creative Pastoral Care and Counseling Series. With Marie Fortune\, she edited Violence Against Women and Children: A Christian Theological Sourcebook (1995). She also wrote a training manual\, Pastoral Care for Domestic Violence:  Case Studies for Clergy – for Christian Audiences – Training Manual (2007) published by the FaithTrust Institute. She wrote one of the earliest articles theorizing why batterers harm animals\, Woman-Battering and Harm to Animals.Dr. Corey Wrenn is Senior Lecturer of Sociology with the School of Social Sciences and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Social and Political Movements at the University of Kent. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology with Colorado State University in 2016. She was awarded Exemplary Diversity Scholar\, 2016 by the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity. She served as council member with the American Sociological Association’s Animals & Society section (2013-2016)\, was elected Chair in 2018\, and co-founded the International Association of Vegan Sociologists in 2020. She serves as Book Review Editor for Society & Animals\, Consulting Editor for Psychology of Human-Animal Intergroup Relations\, and past Editor for The Sociological Quarterly\, is a member of The Vegan Society’s Research Advisory Committee\, and hosts Sociology & Animals Podcast. She is the author of A Rational Approach to Animal Rights: Extensions in Abolitionist Theory (Palgrave MacMillan 2016)\, Piecemeal Protest: Animal Rights in the Age of Nonprofits (University of Michigan Press 2019)\, Animals in Irish Society (SUNY Press 2021)\, Vegan Witchcraft: Contemporary Magical Practice and Multispecies Social Change (forthcoming\, Routledge\, and Vegan Feminism: History\, Theory\, Activism (forthcoming\, Bloomsbury). \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book +entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-talk-celebrating-35-years-of-the-sexual-politics-of-meat-with-carol-j-adams/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,Feminist event,In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/9798765123669.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250315T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250315T213000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20250303T155906Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250313T154250Z UID:65264-1742065200-1742074200@housmans.com SUMMARY:POETRY READING: Francis Jones launches STORM DRAIN DESCRIPTION:We are excited to announce our first poetry reading of the year! We welcome the brilliant Francis Jones\, alongside a cohort of extraordinary young writers\, to launch their new chapbook from Veer2\, STORM DRAIN! Reading alongside Francis will be: Hesse K\, Shola von Reinhold\, Maya Uppal\, Robert Kiely. \n\n\n\nFrancis Jones is a poet and writer from Ireland. In 2024 their collaborative exhibition with Josie Perry The Thieves was exhibited at CCA Glasgow’s Intermedia Gallery\, with an accompanying anthology. In 2023 they wrote a poem-film in collaboration with Jack Hogan titled I Thought I Hated U\, Moon Snail which has been screened at the Whitney ISP final exhibition\, New York\, Colloquium Unpopular Culture at NYU\, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios\, Dublin and Starling\, Limerick throughout 2023 and 2024. Their debut pamphlet of poetry\, sacrificial fabric was published by SPAM in 2021. Their poetry is usually about love and sex\, class and work\, and relies on experiment and collaboration to be interesting and good. They now live in London. \n\n\n\nPraise for STORM DRAIN \n\n\n\n“With the vertiginous glitter of sunlit concrete and fluted\, addictive syntax\, Storm Drain is both a gutter and a fountain for the work-weary and atmospherically-curious dreamers and lovers of this world. The mice and rats of language ecstatically shirk from landlords and bosses in its fugitive waters\, and urchins seize the means of daytime as tokens against despair. These are poems dialled into both ancestral impossibility and the magic trick of torquing stolen time and waged nothings into lyric possibility. With lush and attuned dexterity\, Francis Jones can swerve from the harmonics of mud and skirting boards at the faint edge of perceptibility\, to a heart-in-the-throat directness that continually leaves me in awe.” \n\n\n\n–– Daisy LaFarge\, author of Lovebug\, Paul and Life Without Air \n\n\n\n“STORM DRAIN just goes and goes and goes and goes. Francis Jones has produced something unrelentingly generous\, unhesitatingly devotional –– to language\, to friendship\, to a furtive liberatory obstinance. This is an irascible lyric that refuses any thoughtlessness: despite or rather because of the blunt and sublimation of wage-work\, grief\, colonial reverberation. And at the centre? A wavering\, exacting body\, struck like a tuning fork … forever curious\, sounding. No fixity but the electric clarity of a million indisputable sensations! No surety but the eternal dignity of the working class! This book churns and chokes me. I gag on it\, I gag!” \n\n\n\n–– Hesse K\, author of Disquiet Drive \n\n\n\n“Francis Jones’ poetry captures the imperceptible visions and fleeting qualities of life—those slivers of time lost to the enormity of existence. To read Jones’ work is to inhabit the present\, that paradoxical space where faint beauty stands against the relentlessly bleaching force of capital. It evokes a remembrance of times to come\, a stance against the dazzling future and all of its potential horrors. Francis Jones wills me to keep existing\, to embody my own degeneracy\, vulgarity\, and fragility as acts of defiance against the many suffocating forces of neofascism. Pride grows within me\, echoing from my mind into the world. Each line\, each section of this beautiful collection\, offers grace—allowing us to feel blessed\, to feel loved\, and to hold hope for a beautiful\, liberated future.” \n\n\n\n–– Isaac Harris\, author of Ghetty Gospel \n\n\n\nThis a free event\, however\, money raised from ticket sales will be going to aid Political Prisoners from Palestine Action. If you would like to donate please see the ticket options below. Otherwise use the RSVP link below that to book a free ticket. \n\n\n\n Feel free to byob. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/poetry-reading-francis-jones-launches-storm-drain/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,In Store,Literary Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/4-5_Francis-launch-poster_credit-Jack-Hogan_250220_purple-tint.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250319T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250319T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20250204T122050Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250204T122148Z UID:64320-1742410800-1742416200@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: The Psychic Lives of Statues by Rahul Rao DESCRIPTION:The Psychic Lives of Statues\n\n\n\nReckoning with the Rubble of Empire\n\n\n\n\n\nFrom Cape Town to Bristol and Richmond\, statues have become sites of resistance and contestation of our imperial past and postcolonial present. \n\n\n\nWe are very excited to be launching The Psychic Lives of Statues by Rahul Rao which offers an insightful exploration of these global controversies\, demonstrating that beneath their surface lie deeper struggles over race\, caste\, and the politics of decolonisation. \n\n\n\nRao takes readers on a journey through South Africa\, England\, the US\, Ghana\, India\, Australia\, and Scotland\, revealing how statue controversies have dramatically rearranged the canon of anticolonial political thought. By examining these debates through a personal and literary lens\, Rao addresses the multifaceted issues of justice\, cultural memory\, and belonging. The Psychic Lives of Statues examines both the toppling of colonial statues and the raising of postcolonial ones\, demonstrating that the statue form as a medium of representation and a bid for immortality is by no means obsolete. Engaging with artists\, scholars\, and activists\, Rao provides fresh perspectives on how societies grapple with and reinterpret the past and present through iconography. \n\n\n\nRahul Rao is a Reader in International Political Thought in the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews\, and Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London. He is the author of two books – Third World Protest: Between Home and the World (2010) and Out of Time: The Queer Politics of Postcoloniality (2020)\, both published by Oxford University Press. He is a member of the Radical Philosophy editorial collective. \n\n\n\nAdvanced booking strongly recommended. Doors open at 6:45\, event starts 7:00. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + entry’\, your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-launch-the-psychic-lives-of-statues-by-rahul-rao/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/9780745350769.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250329T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250329T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20250204T131320Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250211T115029Z UID:64353-1743274800-1743280200@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: Renters Unite by Jacob Stringer DESCRIPTION:Join us for an evening with Jacob Stringer as he discusses his vital new book Renters Unite: How Tenant Unions Are Fighting the Housing Crisis\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n‘Eye-opening\, practical\, thoughtful and revolutionary‘ \n\n\n\n– Danny Dorling\, author of Peak Injustice: Solving Britain’s Inequality Crisis \n\n\n\n‘A birds-eye view of tenant organizing across the global north that touches down in moving stories of everyday struggle\, Renters Unite! is a generous and urgent reflection on the diversity of tactics in our movement—to turn individual fear into collective defiance\, to deepen our roots in our communities\, and to scale up our work to win the housing and the world we deserve‘  \n\n\n\n– Tracy Rosenthal\, co-author of Abolish Rent \n\n\n\nHousmans is delighted to welcome long-time organizer Jacob Stringer to the shop to talk about his essential new book\, penned from the front lines of the housing crisis. \n\n\n\nAs housing crises proliferate around the world\, so does the fightback. A new generation of tenants’ unions are rising up to demand good\, affordable housing for all. From the streets of Los Angeles to the avenues of Berlin\, these unions are rewriting the playbook on community empowerment and direct action. Stringer navigates the joys and perils of a new and exciting form of political organising. Through vivid storytelling and analysis\, this book takes readers to the frontlines to expose the brutality of criminal landlords and exploitative housing.It’s time to say no to bad landlords and join the movement for housing justice! \n\n\n\nJacob Stringer is a housing and social movements researcher\, and a member of London Renters Union. His work has appeared in openDemocracy. He will be in conversation with researcher and activist Jess Adams from Newcastle University. Jess works in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Institutes: the Institute for Social Science\, the Humanities Research Institute and Institute for Creative Arts Practice. Her research uses a militant methodology to understand contemporary notions of participation via an examination of her experience of participating in Corbynism and post-Corbynism. \n\n\n\nAdvanced booking strongly recommended. Doors open at 6:45\, event starts 7:00. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + entry’\, your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-lauch-renters-unite-by-jacob-stringer/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Stringer-RU.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250426T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250426T210000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20250402T150143Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250416T141350Z UID:65994-1745694000-1745701200@housmans.com SUMMARY:POETRY READING: KYLE LOVELL & ALEX MARSH DOUBLE BOOK LAUNCH DESCRIPTION:WE ARE BACK with another absolutely stellar poetry reading. Our friends over at The Poet’s Hardship Fund have been busy with one of their fantastic imprints Chaff. We will be launching two new titles: Kyle Lovell’s equisite God Bless All Petty Thieves and Alex Marsh’s ingenius Holding Pattern. \n\n\n\nAlongside Kyle and Alex we are blessed to have the amazing poets James Goodwin and Nell Osbourne \n\n\n\nPRE-ORDERS \n\n\n\nPre-orders can be placed here: \n\n\n\nhttps://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=TYJTXU5FBUP8CPlease include your name and address in the info box\, and the name of the book you would like. \n\n\n\nIt is £8 for one\, or £15 for both. All cash goes straight to the Poet’s Hardships Fund. \n\n\n\nAny profits from pamphlet sales on the evening will also be going to the Poet’s Hardship Fund. \n\n\n\nOUR POETS: \n\n\n\nKyle Lovell is the editor of Fathomsun Press. Their poems haveappeared in Blackbox Manifold\, Pamenar Press\, and LUDD GANG. They arethe author of Each Sharper Complication (legitimate snack\, 2020)\, Inthe Debt of Love (And False Fire\, 2021)\, and a co-author of theSonnets for Hooch series. Their latest pamphlet is ‘God Bless AllPetty Thieves’ (Chaff\, 2025). \n\n\n\nAlex Marsh is a poet from London. His previous books include Silo Bliss (SPAM Press)\, Ten Red Mornings (Death of Workers) and Two in the Wave (Distance No Object). He also co-runs Gong Farm and co-edits Ludd Gang\, a bi-monthly magazine set up to support the Poets’ Hardship Fund. \n\n\n\nNell Osborne published her first poetry pamphlet\, The Canine Redeemer Has Entered The Bungalow\, in 2021 with Just Not. Her most recent pamphlet Thank You For Everything\, is published by Monitor Books. Her debut novel is forthcoming with MOIST in September 2025. \n\n\n\nJames Goodwin‘s most recent book of poetry is Faux Ice\, published by Materials in 2022. He lives in London on a narrowboat. \n\n\n\nThis is a free event\, but please RSVP below so we have an idea of numbers. \n\n\n\nPlease feel free to BYOB. \n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/poetry-reading-kyle-lovell-alex-marsh-double-book-launch/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Literary Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/tickets.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250429T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250429T213000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20250324T150252Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250408T160822Z UID:65778-1745953200-1745962200@housmans.com SUMMARY:ON TONY BENN: Andy Beckett and Melissa Benn in Conversation DESCRIPTION:To celebrate the long-awaited publication of Tony Benn’s political writings\, as well as the paperback edition of The Searchers\, we welcome Andy Beckett and Melissa Benn to the shop for a conversation on Benn\, his fellow Labour renegades and the future of the Labour left. \n\n\n\n\n\nWe are delighted to be welcoming Melissa Benn to the shop to the celebrate the centenary anthology of her father Tony Benn’s speeches\, writings and interviews. The book is a timely reminder of his political potency and the urgency of his agenda across a wide set of issues: the consequences of empire\, the need to embrace industrial change\, reform of the state machine and the management of politics. Joining Melissa we have Andy Beckett\, journalist for The Guardian\, The Economist and The London Review of Books. We also be launching the paperback edition of Andy’s brilliant book The Searchers: Five Rebels\, Their Dream of a Different Britain\, and Their Many Enemies\, a book about Benn and the Labour Left politicians he collaborated with and inspired. \n\n\n\nAdvanced booking strongly recommended. Doors open at 6:45\, event starts 7:00. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + entry’\, your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/on-tony-benn-andy-beckett-and-melissa-benn-in-conversation/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store,Literary Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/preeti-insta-12-1024x1024-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250430T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250430T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20250128T131839Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250128T132353Z UID:64080-1746039600-1746045000@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK TALK: SQUATTING LONDON with Samuel Burgum DESCRIPTION:Squatting in London has a rich and diverse history. Today\, squatters live a marginalised\, stigmatised and criminalised existence\, yet they persist. Behind the glittering façade of shiny new buildings\, London is a network of vacant offices\, boarded-up shops and dilapidated pubs that host some of the city’s poorest and most determined citizens\, exiled and increasingly pushed to the margins. \n\n\n\nWe are very excited to welcome Samuel Burgum to Housmans to talk about his vital new book about a facinating\, and much neglected\, part of our urban history. Squatting London: The Politics of Property is an account of the real lives of the city’s squatters: their ambitions and struggles. Squatting is a challenge to the logic of property which underpins the city. By finding refuge\, staying put\, creating spaces and participating in counter-cultures\, squats are political acts. They sit in direct opposition to the speculation\, gentrification and regeneration that controls London today. \n\n\n\nFrom wasted office blocks transformed into a life-saving homeless shelter\, to temporary art exhibitions and raves; from an empty doctor’s surgery\, to a library closed by cuts; from mutual aid networks set up during the pandemic\, to restaurants\, shops\, offices and pubs – Squatting London is an alternative\, underground and rebellious ethnographic account of a city you thought you already knew. \n\n\n\nSamuel Burgum is an urban sociologist\, currently conducting a Leverhulme-sponsored ethnographic project on squatting in the context of the UK’s housing crisis. He is the author of Occupying London: Post-Crash Resistance and the Limits of Possibility. He has written for various journals\, including Antipode\, The Sociological Review and Journal for Cultural Research. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + event entry’ or ‘special bundle’\, your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-talk-squatting-london-with-samuel-burgum/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/avif:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/9780745341439-1.avif END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250521T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250521T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T235640 CREATED:20250422T111633Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250521T141049Z UID:66091-1747854000-1747859400@housmans.com SUMMARY:The Politics of Motherhood: Alex Bollen & Helen Charman in conversation DESCRIPTION:We are very excited to welcome two brilliant contemporary feminist thinkers to Housmans; their projects address ‘motherhood’ and the figure of the mother\, as the urgent political categories that they are. \n\n\n\nAlex Bollen is a Postnatal Practitioner with the National Childbirth Trust and researcher with over 20 years of experiance\, in Motherdom: Breaking Free from Bad Science and Good Mother Myths she picks apart the pernicious histories of what she refers to as ‘Good Mother Myths.’ These myths are deployed to censure mothers and blame them for society’s problems. Incensed by the way bad science is used to shame mothers\, she decided to set the record straight. With meticulous research and keen insight\, Motherdom exposes both the shaky science and unjustified prescriptions about how mothers should ‘naturally’ behave. Competing visions of birth – ‘natural’ versus ‘medical’ – mean women can be criticised whatever happens\, raising the odds that birth will be a damaging\, even deadly\, experience. Mothers are judged and belittled whether they breast- or bottle-feed their babies. Bogus claims about brain development and dodgy attachment theories mean that whatever mothers do\, it is never enough. This must stop\, she says. We must replace Good Mother myths with a realistic approach to parenting. Alex Bollen proposes ‘motherdom’\, a more expansive conception of motherhood\, which values and respects the different ways people raise their children. Instead of finding fault with mothers\, Motherdom shifts our focus to the relationships and resources children need to flourish. \n\n\n\nAlex will be in conversation with Helen Charman whose book Mother State\, not even out in paperback yet\, already has a well deserved reputation as one of the major works of Marxist-Feminist thinking produced this decade. In it\, Helen argues that motherhood must be conceived within poltical terms and that we must take a wider historically cohesive view of the figure of the mother\, who is both monstered\, and legislated againist\, by the state\, whilst also being held up as sort of ideal of reactionary political femininity. From the blurb: “In Mother State\, Helen Charman writes a new history of Britain and Northern Ireland. Beginning with Women’s Liberation and ending with austerity\, the book follows mothers’ fights for an alternative future. Alongside the mother figures that loom large in British culture\, from Margaret Thatcher to Kat Slater\, we meet communities of lesbian squatters\, anti-nuclear campaigners\, the wives of striking miners and teenage mothers protesting housing cuts: groups who believed that if you want to nourish your children\, you have to nourish the world around them too. Here we see a world where motherhood is not a restrictive identity but a state of possibility. ‘Mother’ ceases to be an individual responsibility\, and becomes an expansive collective term to organize under\, for people of any gender\, with or without children of their own. It begins with an understanding: that to mother is a political act.” \n\n\n\nAdvanced booking strongly recommended. \n\n\n\nDoors open at 6:45\, event starts 7:00. \n\n\n\nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \n\n\n\nIf you choose ‘book + entry’\, your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \n\n\n\nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/the-politics-of-motherhood-alex-bollen-helen-charman-in-conversation/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/preeti-insta-13.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR