MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Four years that shook Britain
JOHN GREEN recommends an insightful look back at Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the opposition
END OF THE ROAD: Jeremy Corbyn at an election rally at Hoxton Docks in London, 2019
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
Is Socialism Possible in Britain? Reflections on the Corbyn years
By Andrew Murray
Verso £14.99
THE answer to Andrew Murray’s rhetorical title is, of course, yes, but the really pertinent question is, when? Given the defenestration of Jeremy Corbyn coupled with the extinguished hopes of the many, it could be a long wait.
Hardly anyone is better placed — he was special political adviser for the leader of the opposition — to analyse and explain the Corbyn phenomenon than Murray, so this book is to be warmly welcomed.
With his lifelong activist background, his role as co-chair of Stop the War and his strong association with the trade union movement, becoming chief of staff at Unite, together with his advisory role to the leader’s office under Jeremy Corbyn, he has gained a unique perspective on that era.
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