ANDY HEDGECOCK is entertained by a playful novel that embeds a fictional game at its heart
You Are Legend: The Welsh Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
by Graham Davies
(Welsh Academic Press, £19.99)
“WHEN the years pass by and the wounds of war are staunched... speak to your children. Tell them of these men of the International Brigades,” Dolores Ibarruri (La Pasionaria) pronounced in her farewell address to the International Brigades in Barcelona in November 1938.
Graham Davies is the latest to speak of those men. Despite a seemingly narrow focus on the Welsh men — and two women — who volunteered, the book gives a full account of the causes of the war and its events, while seamlessly weaving the personal stories of the Welsh volunteers into the general history of the brigades.
TONY FOX reports from a commemoration of the legendary Battle of Jarama in which four Stockton-on-Tees volunteers fell
CJ ATKINS commemorates one of the most dramatic moments in working-class history
JIM JUMP looks forward to the International Brigade Memorial Trust AGM taking place in Belfast later this week where the spirit of solidarity will be rekindled
The historic heartland of anti-fascist resistance and mining militancy now faces a new battle — stopping Nigel Farage. ANDREW MURRAY meets ex-Labour MP Beth Winter and former Plaid leader Leanne Wood, the two socialists leading the resistance



