‘The Candidate: Jeremy Corbyn’s Improbable Path to Power’ by Alex Nunns wins the Bread & Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2017

The Alliance of Radical Booksellers (ARB) is delighted to announce the winner of this year’s Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing as ‘The Candidate: Jeremy Corbyn’s Improbable Path to Power’ by Alex Nunns and published by OR Books.

The judges greatly appreciated this exploration of the deep roots of the Corbyn phenomenon. In The Candidate, Nunns shows that Corbyn’s victories weren’t the accidental consequence of other candidates’ failures, but were built on the work of an energised, thoughtful and committed movement of citizen-campaigners.

Cogent, optimistic, well-written and thoroughly researched, this hugely topical book records with great intimacy and insight an historical moment whose lessons mustn’t be forgotten, while also exposing the persistent forces which continue to work against social change.

Alex Nunn’s was awarded the prize and a cheque for £500 by guest judge Joan Anim-Addo at this year’s London Radical Bookfair, hosted as ever by the ARB. This year’s prize money has been generously granted by the General Federation of Trade Unions.

Guest judge Joan Anim-Addo presents Alex Nunn’s with the award.

Alex Nunns with the Bread & Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2017

Photos by Asya Gefter http://asyagefter.com

Book summary

In September 2015 an earthquake shook the foundations of British politics. Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong and uncompromising socialist, was elected to head the Labour Party. Corbyn didn’t just win the leadership contest, he trounced his opponents. The establishment was aghast. The official opposition now had as its leader a man with a plan, according to the conservative Daily Telegraph, “to turn Britain into Zimbabwe.”

How this remarkable twist of events came about is the subject of Alex Nunns’ highly readable and richly researched account. Drawing on first-hand interviews with those involved in the campaign, including its most senior figures, Nunns traces the origins of Corbyn’s victory in the dissatisfaction with Blairism stirred by the Iraq War and the 2008 financial crash, the move to the left of the trade unions, and changes in the electoral rules of the Labour Party that turned out to be surreally at odds with the intentions of those who introduced them. The system of one-member-one-vote, which delivered Corbyn’s success, was opposed by those on the left and was heralded by Tony Blair who described it as “a long overdue reform that… I should have done myself.”

Giving full justice to the dramatic swings and nail-biting tensions of an extraordinary summer in UK politics, Nunns’ telling of a story that has received widespread attention but little understanding is as illuminating as it is entertaining. He teases out a plotline of such improbability that it would be unusable in a work of fiction, providing the first convincing explanation of a remarkable phenomenon with enormous consequences for the left in Britain and beyond.

For more info please visit the OR Book website:
http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-candidate/?utm_source=Bread%20and%20Roses&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=Candidate

The Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2017 Shortlist

The Alliance of Radical Booksellers is delighted to announce the shortlist for the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2017. Now in its sixth year, the Bread & Roses Award seeks to celebrate excellence in the field of radical political non-fiction.

The winner will be announced by guest judges Joan Anim-Addo, Vera Chok and Owen Hatherley  at a ceremony at the London Radical Bookfair on Saturday 24^th June 2017. Also announced at this ceremony will be the ARB’s children’s prize, The Little Rebel’s Children’s Book Award, the shortlist for which is now also announced.

THE 2017 SHORTLIST 

‘Lean Out’ by Dawn Foster (Repeater Books)
http://repeaterbooks.com/books/lean-out-dawn-foster

‘The Hammer Blow: How 10 Women Disarmed a War Plane’ by Andrea Needham (Peace News)
http://www.peacenews.info/node/8245/hammer-blow-–-how-10-women-disarmed-warplane

‘The Candidate: Jeremy Corbyn’s Improbable Path to Power’ by Alex Nunns (OR Books)
http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-candidate

‘This is the Place to Be’ by Lara Pawson (CB Editions)
http://www.cbeditions.com/pawson.html

‘See Red Women’s Workshop – Feminist Posters 1974-1990’ by See Red Members & Sheila Rowbotham (Four Corners Books)
https://seeredwomensworkshop.wordpress.com

‘The Egyptians: A Radical Story’ by Jack Shenker (Allen Lane)
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/186165/the-egyptians/

‘Another Day in the Death of America’ by Gary Younge (Guardian Faber)
https://www.faber.co.uk/9781783351015-another-day-in-the-death-of-america.html

The winner of the award will receive a cheque for £500. The ARB would like to thank the General Federation of Trade Unions for funding this year’s award.

To view the submissions list for 2017 please visit: https://breadandrosesprize.wordpress.com/2017/03/09/the-bread-and-roses-submission-list-2017

Submissions now open for the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2017

The Alliance of Radical Booksellers (ARB) is happy to announce that submissions are now being welcomed for the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2017. The Bread and Roses Award celebrates non-fiction which is

• informed by socialist, anarchist, environmental, feminist and anti-racist concerns
• inspires, supports or reports on political and/or personal change
• accessible and readable by the interested reader
• relates to global, national, local or specialist areas of interest

Previous winners have included:

David Graeber’s ‘Debt: The First 5,000 Years’ (Melville House, 2011)
Hsiao-Hung Pai’s ‘Scattered Sand: The Story of China’s Rural Migrants’ (Verso, 2012)
Joe Glenton’s ‘Soldier Box: Why I Won’t Return to the War on Terror’ (Verso, 2013)
‘Here We Stand: Women Changing The World’, edited by Helena Earnshaw and Angharad Penrhyn Jones (Honno Press, 2014)
‘The Song of the Shirt: The High Price of Cheap Garments, from Blackburn to Bangladesh’ by Jeremy Seabrook (Hurst, 2015)

Guest judges

This year’s guest judges are:

Vera Chok is a writer and actor who contributed a chapter to The Good Immigrant (Book of the Year 2016, BBC Book of the Week, #1 on Guardian Books and Amazon bestseller) and is also published by the Guardian, Rising, Yauatcha Life, and The Brautigan Free Press. As a maker, Vera writes and produces mischievous and subversive pieces that investigate the construction of meaning, connection, and performativity. Vera is particularly interested in race, sex and gender and uses comedy as a weapon.

Owen Hatherley is a writer and journalist based in London who writes primarily on architecture, politics and culture. His most recent books include A New Kind of Bleak (Verso, 2012), Landscapes of Communism (Allen Lane, 2015), The Ministry of Nostalgia (Verso, 2016)

Professor Joan Anim-Addo has been the Director of the then Centre for Caribbean Studies at Goldmsiths, and is currently convenor for the undergraduate option: Caribbean Women’s Writing and also the Pathway ‘Literature of the Caribbean and its Diasporas’ within the MA Comparative Literary Studies programme.

Award ceremony and prize money

The prize will be awarded at the London Radical Bookfair, to be held on Saturday 24^th June 2017 in the Great Hall at Goldsmiths University, London.

There is one prize of £500 to the winning title, generously funded by the General Federation of Trade Unions. The prize is run in conjunction with the ARB’s prize for progressive children’s writing, The Little Rebels Children’s Book Award.

Submissions

For full submissions criteria and procedure please visit Bread and Roses website:
https://breadandrosesprize.wordpress.com/faqs

Crucially, submitted books must have been published in 2016 and books must be written, or largely written by authors or editors living for the majoirty of the year in the UK.

The official deadline is 9^th January 2017, however we would  be very appreciative if the submissions could be made as soon as possible, to allow maximum time for reading.

More information and links

Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing
https://breadandrosesprize.wordpress.com
The Little Rebels Children’s Book Award
www.littlerebelsaward.wordpress.com/
London Radical Bookfair
http://londonradicalbookfair.wordpress.com

Alliance of Radical Booksellers
www.radicalbooksellers.co.uk

The Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2016 Shortlist

The Alliance of Radical Booksellers (ARB) is delighted to announce the shortlist for the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2016. Now in its fifth year, the Bread & Roses Awards seeks to celebrate excellence in the field of radical political non-fiction.

Previous winners include David Graeber’s ‘Debt: The First 5000 Years’ and Hsiao-Hung Pai’s ‘Scattered Sand: The Story of China’s Rural Migrants’.

The winner will be announced by guest judges Natalie Bennett and Nina Power at a ceremony at the London Radical Bookfair on Saturday 7^th May 2015. Also announced at this ceremony will be the ARB’s children’s prize, The Little Rebel’s Children’s Book Award, the shortlist for which will be announced at the end of the month.

THE 2016 SHORTLIST 

‘Artwash: Big Oil and the Arts’ by Mel Evans (Pluto Press)

‘Blacklisted: The secret war between big business and union activists’ by Phil Chamberlain and Dave Smith (New Internationalist)

‘Petticoat Heroes: Gender, Culture and Popular Protest in the Rebecca Riots’ by Rhian E. Jones (University of Wales Press)

‘Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg’ by Kate Evans (Verso)

‘The Song of the Shirt: The High Price of Cheap Garments, from Blackburn to Bangladesh’ by Jeremy Seabrook (Hurst)

‘Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner? A Story About Women and Economics’ by Katrine Marcal (Portobello)

The winner of the award will receive a cheque for £500. The ARB would like to thank the General Federation of Trade Unions for funding this year’s award.

To view the longlist please visit: https://breadandrosesprize.wordpress.com/2016/01/21/the-bread-and-roses-longlist-2016/

Submissions welcome for the 2016 Bread & Roses Award

• Submissions now open for the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2016
• Guest judges: Natalie Bennett, Anna Minton and Nina Power
• Award ceremony keynote event at the London Radical Bookfair on 7^th May 
  

The Alliance of Radical Booksellers (ARB) is happy to announce that submissions are now being welcomed for the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2016. The Bread and Roses Award celebrates non-fiction which is

• informed by socialist, anarchist, environmental, feminist and anti-racist concerns
• inspires, supports or reports on political and/or personal change
• accessible and readable by the interested reader
• relates to global, national, local or specialist areas of interest

Previous winners have included:

David Graeber’s ‘Debt: The First 5,000 Years’ (Melville House, 2011),
Hsiao-Hung Pai’s ‘Scattered Sand: The Story of China’s Rural Migrants’ (Verso, 2012),
Joe Glenton’s ‘Soldier Box: Why I Won’t Return to the War on Terror’ (Verso, 2013)
and  ‘Here We Stand: Women Changing The World’, edited by Helena Earnshaw and Angharad Penrhyn Jones (Honno Press, 2014).

Guest judges  

Natalie Bennett, Nina Power and Anna Minton

This year’s guest judges are:

Natalie Bennett is the leader of the Green party. She edited Guardian Weekly between 2007 and March 2012. She’s a veteran blogger, with her home blog being Philobiblon, covering politics, history and books, and she was the founder of the Carnival of Feminists.

Nina Power is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Roehampton University. She is the author of ‘One-Dimensional Woman’ (Zero Books 2009), co-editor of Alain Badiou’s ‘On Beckett’ (Clinamen 2002), and the author of several articles on European Philosophy, atomism, pedagogy, art and politics.

Anna Minton is a writer and journalist and the author of ‘Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the 21st Century City’, published by Penguin. She is a frequent contributor to The Guardian and The Financial Times and is a Reader in Architecture at the University of East London. More info about her work can be found at www.annaminton.com

Award ceremony and prize money

The prize will be awarded at the London Radical Bookfair, to be held on Saturday 7^th May. This year’s London Radical Bookfair will  be taking place in tandem with the Alternative Press Fair.

 

There is one prize of £500 to the winning title, generously funded by the The General Federation of Trade Unions. The prize is run in conjunction with the ARB’s prize for progressive children’s writing, The Little Rebels Children’s Book Award.

Submissions

For full submissions criteria please visit Bread and Roses website:
https://breadandrosesprize.wordpress.com/faqs

Crucially, submitted books must have been published in 2015 and books must be written, or largely written by authors or editors normally living in the UK.

‘Here We Stand: Women Changing The World’ wins the Bread & Roses Award 2015

The Alliance of Radical Booksellers is delighted to announce the winner of this year’s Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing as ‘Here We Stand: Women Changing The World’, published by Honno Press, and edited by Helena Earnshaw and Angharad Penrhyn Jones.

Through a series of interviews and articles, 17 key British women campaigners talk intimately about the difficult and exhilarating nature of their activism. They have organised, marched on the streets, joined protest camps, opened refuges, blogged from war zones, and smashed up military equipment. They have gone undercover, lived in trees, stormed Parliament, and taken on the world’s largest corporations. They have been sacked, attacked, psychologically abused, jailed, shot at, sued, deceived by police spies, and even disowned by their families. But still they keep dreaming; still they march on. And they are changing history.

Contributors to the book include: Franny Armstrong, Zoe Broughton, Skye Chirape, Eileen Chubb, Liz Crow, Kate Evans, Zita Holbourne, Shauneen Lambe, Sharyn Lock, Emma Must, Jasvinder Sanghera, Mary Sharkey, Helen Steel, Angharad Tomos, Anuradha Vittachi, Jo Wilding, Angie Zelter.

Guest judge Nina Power said of the book “Anthologies can often be uneven affairs, but this collection was consistently moving, insightful and inspiring in equal measure. The editors deserve particular praise for having so brilliantly presented these essential accounts of women involved in so many areas of struggle.”

Co-guest judge Anna Minton added “From the first page to the last, these incredible stories of women’s political courage leap off the page. The blend of personal accounts mixed with outstanding journalism make for a truly inspiring collection.”

The award was presented by Anna, Nina and Natalie Bennett at the London Radical Bookfair. The editors were presented with a cheque for £500, with the award money funded by the General Federation of Trade Unions.

Editors Angharad Penrhyn Jones, Helena Earnshaw and guest judge Natalie Bennett.

Contributor to the book Zita Holbourne alongside Natalie Bennett.

Photos by Asya Gefter http://asyagefter.com

The Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2015 Shortlist

The Alliance of Radical Booksellers (ARB) is delighted to announce the shortlist for the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2015. Now in its fourth year, the Bread & Roses Awards seeks to celebrate excellence in the field of radical political non-fiction.

Previous winners include David Graeber’s ‘Debt: The First 5000 Years’ and Hsiao-Hung Pai’s ‘Scattered Sand: The Story of China’s Rural Migrants’.

The winner will be announced by guest judges Natalie Bennett, Anna Minton and Nina Power at a ceremony at the London Radical Bookfair on Saturday 9^th May 2015. Also announced at this ceremony will be the ARB’s children’s prize, The Little Rebel’s Children’s Book Award, the shortlist for which will be announced at the end of the month.

Trustee for the Bread & Roses Nik Górecki says:

“We had a record number of submissions this year, and from an ever-growing range of publishers, which has made for a very strong longlist and an exceptional shortlist. I know the readers had an incredibly difficult time arriving at this shortlist.”

The Shortlist

‘Economics: The User’s Guide’ by Ha-Joon Chang (Pelican Introduction)

‘Here We Stand: Women Changing the World’ edited by Helena Earnshaw & Angharad Penrhyn Jones (Honno)

‘Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline’ edited by Malu Halasa, Zaher Omareen & Nawara Mahfoud (Saqi)

‘Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion’ by Tansy E. Hoskins (Pluto)

‘What the **** is Normal?!’ by Francesca Martinez (Ebury)

‘Private Island: Why Britain Now Belongs to Someone Else’ by James Meek (Verso)

‘In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre’ by Lara Pawson (I.B. Tauris)

The winner of the award will receive a cheque for £500. The ARB would like to thank the General Federation of Trade Unions for funding this year’s award.

To view the longlist please visit:

https://breadandrosesprize.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/the-bread-roses-longlist-2015/