I cannot recommend Housmans events too highly, it’s unique in London’s impoverished (from the left) cultural life. Yeah, I know, those of you not living in London are denied the pleasure, but visit their online store, the bookshop has been going since 1945, quite an achievement. The Ed.

CONTENTS:

NEWS

1. Housmans online bookshop launched! Over 500,000 titles available…

EVENTS IN AUGUST
‘London’s Burning’: a celebration of radical London

2. ‘Falling through the Centuries’ – Liverpool Street to Fleet Street, a walk with Tony Giles
Saturday 8th August – 2.30pm

3. ‘The London Free School: Notting Hill 1966 – Counter Culture, Community Action and Carnival Roots’ slideshow and talk by Tom Vague
Wednesday 12th August – 7pm till 8.30pm

4. ‘Local Housing Campaigns in Context’ with Sarah Glynn
Saturday 15th August – 5pm till 6.30pm

5. ‘Violent London: 2000 Years of Riots, Rebels and Revolts’ with Clive Bloom
Saturday 22nd August – 5pm till 6.30pm

6. Merlin Coverley & Friends – ‘Books that London Forgot’
Wednesday 26th August – 7pm to 8.30pm

7. ‘A Historical Walk Through The Radical Jewish East End’ with David Rosenberg
Saturday 29th August – 11am

8. ‘London Stories: Personal Lives, Public Histories’ with Hilda Kean
Saturday 29th August – 5pm till 6.30pm

BOOKS

9. ‘London: City of Disappearances’ by Iain Sinclair

10. ‘London Hanged’ by Peter Linebaugh

NEWS

1. Housmans online bookshop launched! Over 500,000 titles available…

After much work behind the scenes, Housmans has launched a brand new online bookshop. From the Housmans site you are now able to buy up to half a million different titles online – delivered to your door – safe in the knowledge that you are still supporting your favourite independent bookshop.

As I’m sure you are aware, all bookshops are under a lot of pressure at the moment, and your support is essential to preventing the demise of high street independents. We really hope that you will consider using our online bookshop as an ethical alternative to union-busting Amazon.com.

Please visit http://www.housmans.com and check it out. Buy online and support the shop that supports your campaigns!

EVENTS IN AUGUST
‘London’s Burning’: a celebration of radical London

Housmans ‘London’s Burning’ series, celebrating radical London, continues this August. There are still a few spaces remaining on the walks – please get in touch if you are interested. More comprehensive details about all events can be found at http://www.housmans.com/events.php

2. ‘Falling through the Centuries’ – Liverpool Street to Fleet Street, a walk with Tony Giles
Saturday 8th August – 2.30pm

Tony will be leading this walk uncovering the hidden corners and stories through Avenues and Alleyways, Courtyards, Churchyards and Slaughteryards. Meeting at Dirt Dicks, 202 Bishopsgate, City of London, EC2M 4NR. Walk will finish in Fleet Street. Limited spaces: to book a place and for more info please email nik@housmans.com

3. ‘The London Free School: Notting Hill 1966 – Counter Culture, Community Action and Carnival Roots’ slideshow and talk by Tom Vague
Wednesday 12th August – 7pm till 8.30pm

Punk fanzine editor Tom Vague will be introducing the above and also screening the ‘Notting Hill 1958 Riot Tour Westway’ TV film.

4. ‘Local Housing Campaigns in Context’ with Sarah Glynn
Saturday 15th August – 5pm till 6.30pm

From Hackney to Hammersmith, tenants and activists have been fighting a prolonged battle against what has become a persistent assault on the housing and housing standards of those on below average incomes. For that battle to have any chance of success it is important to know what we are up against. In this talk, Sarah Glynn will be drawing on her recent book, ‘Where the Other Half Lives: lower income housing in a neoliberal world’, to analyse the impact of three decades of neoliberal economic policies that have regarded houses not primarily as homes for living in, but rather as a source of profit.

5. ‘Violent London: 2000 Years of Riots, Rebels and Revolts’ with Clive Bloom
Saturday 22nd August – 5pm till 6.30pm

Clive Bloom charts the story of London through centuries of popular insurrection and protest. It is a story of political activism expressed in street fighting and slum warfare, in assassination and bombing.

6. Merlin Coverley & Friends – ‘Books that London Forgot’
Wednesday 26th August – 7pm to 8.30pm

Merlin Coverley will be joined by writers, publishers and we hope you, to discuss some of the lesser known pieces of London literature.

7. ‘A Historical Walk Through The Radical Jewish East End’ with David Rosenberg
Saturday 29th August – 11am

A walking tour of radical Whitechapel. During the tour you will find the answer to many questions:
Why did the Jews come to the East End?
Who was Rudolf Rocker and what did he do?
Why was there a riot in Princelet Street in 1904?
Who lived in the Rothschild Buildings?
What was the Workers Circle?
Who was Hannah Billig and why did she refuse a once-in-a-lifetime invitation?

There is no fee for the walk but there will be a request for voluntary donations at the end. Limited spaces: to book a place and for more info please email nik@housmans.com

8. ‘London Stories: Personal Lives, Public Histories’ with Hilda Kean
Saturday 29th August – 5pm till 6.30pm

Hilda Kean debunks the melodramatic and romantic clichés that pervade popular conceptions of working-class Londoners in the 19th and 20th centuries.

BOOKS

Don’t forget to check out our new online bookshop at www.housmans.com, with over 500,000 titles available.

9. ‘London: City of Disappearances’ by Iain Sinclair
672 pages, Penguin Books
Our Price: £14.99

“Welcome to the real, unauthorised London: the disappeared, the unapproved, the unvoiced, the mythical and the all-but forgotten. The perfect companion to the city. Exhilarating, truly wonderful, a cavalcade of eloquent writing. London demands an anthology like this to remind us of the irascible quirkiness of its residents, and we have Sinclair to thank for marshalling such a perverse and ultimately pleasurable exercise” Independent on Sunday

To buy this book please follow this link:
www.shop.housmans.com/BookItem.aspx?item=9780141019482

10. ‘London Hanged’ by Peter Linebaugh
RRP: £11.99
Our Price: £9.59 (20% off)
528 pages, Verso Books

This handsome new edition of Peter Linebaugh’s classic The London Hanged is a fully updated version of a seminal and groundbreaking study of the rise of consumer society, which the author contends arose via the crushing and criminalising of the English working class.

He argues that hanging in 18th-century London was not about punishment—hanging was a public spectacle used to demonstrate the power of a ruling class and to force the acceptance by the poor populace of that power and its use in criminalising, forbidding and removing traditional rights and freedoms. Capital punishment was about disciplining all the poor. Hanging was part of the ideological process of turning London’s downtrodden masses into a suppliant industrial working class.

To buy this book please follow this link:
www.shop.housmans.com/BookItem.aspx?item=9781859845769

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Housmans
5 Caledonian Road
King’s Cross
London N1 9DX
t: 020 7837 4473
e: shop@housmans.com

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