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Copper Lady: Life in the Met and Lords
Plodding plod account of rising through the police ranks
Jenny Hilton
SIMON PARSONS is gripped by a psychological thriller that questions the the power of the state over vulnerable individuals
KEN COCKBURN assesses the art of Ian Hamilton Finlay for the experience of warfare it incited and represents
The bard gives us advance notice of his upcoming medieval K-pop releases
GORDON PARSONS steps warily through the pessimistic world view of an influential US conservative
HENRY BELL takes issue with the assertion that basic income is a remedy for poverty when it doesn’t address the inbuilt inequality of capitalism
RON JACOBS welcomes an investigation of the murders of US leftist activists that tells the story of a solidarity movement in Chile
BILLED as the book that reveals the corruption, racism and heavy drinking rife in the Metropolitan Police, Copper Lady is a ponderous potted history of Jenny Hilton, potentially a pioneering police officer, that could have been so much more.
There has been fundamental change during her tenure at the Met, although it takes seven chapters before we even get to her joining the force.
Her journey starts in the 1950s, when women made up just 1 per cent of the service and were left to deal with prostitutes, teenagers and neglected children and ends with her elevation to the peerage in the 1990s, when she spoke out against the Iraq war.
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