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Out now: Definable Traces in the Atmosphere


An anthology of Mike Marqusee's selected articles discussing Bob Dylan, the game of cricket, American Civil rights, Jewish identity, William Blake’s art, nationalism, Big Pharma, Labour Party politics, the films of John Ford, Flamenco music, the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, the BDS campaign, Muhammad Ali and Italian Renaissance painting amongst many other topics explored with Marqusee's acute, erude and kaleidoscopic writings.

Rescatar el pasado para construir el futuro

Spanish translation of Red Pepper column ’1200 BC: The world’s first industrial action … rescuing the past for the future’ Translated for Rebelión by Christine Lewis Carrol La ciudad de Luxor, en el sur de Egipto, fue noticia en Gran Bretaña a finales de febrero con ocasión de la muerte de 19 turistas en un… Read more

The “biggest” book about cricket: a tribute to Beyond a Boundary

Five decades ago, in the pages of The Cricketer, John Arlott dubbed Beyond a Boundary “in the intellectual sense… quite the ‘biggest’ book about cricket” ever written. That judgement stands, but it’s almost a disservice to a book that is, among so many other things, hugely entertaining. CLR James’ Beyond a Boundary remains uncategorisable, a… Read more

Iain Banks’s announcement: memento mori and wake-up call

The Guardian 6 April 2013 Receiving a cancer diagnosis, and with it, at times, a harsh prognosis, is inevitably a strange and disorientating experience. It poses awkward challenges for everyone concerned – doctors, patients, loved ones. There is in the end no one “right” way to breach news of this kind, which in any case… Read more

From the pyramids to Tahrir Square

The Hindu 6 April, 2013 Like travellers since Alexander, we started at the pyramids. After a spell in Cairo’s medieval quarter, followed by a visit to the New Kingdom tombs and temples in Luxor, we ended in Tahrir Square, where we joined thousands in a demonstration against President Morsi and his government. On the eve… Read more

1200 BC: The world’s first industrial action … rescuing the past for the future

Contending for the living Red Pepper, April-May 2013 The city of Luxor in southern Egypt made the headlines in Britain at the end of February, when 19 tourists were killed in a hot air balloon accident. That tragedy will compound the woes of Egypt’s tourist industry, once a major source of employment and foreign currency,… Read more

The man who went beyond a boundary

CONTENDING FOR THE LIVING Red Pepper, February-March 2013 When CLR James’ Beyond A Boundary was first published fifty years ago, the sociology of sport and the politics of popular culture had no place in the academy or on the left. The book had to create its own subject, define a new field of intervention. James… Read more

Atreverse a fracasar, atreverse a ganar

“Dare to fail, dare to win” Spanish translation (for Rebelion) of Red Pepper column on “Success, failure…” En la lucha por el cambio social, el éxito y el fracaso son a veces difíciles de determinar. Sólo si aceptamos que podemos fracasar asumiremos los riesgos que podrían conducir a un mundo mejor. Traducido para Rebelión por… Read more

Ten years on: a comment on the British SWP

The recent conflict within the Socialist Workers Party over allegations of serious personal misconduct by a leading member has brought back sharply my own rupture with the (then) SWP leadership, ten years ago, and how this was handled by the party (of which I’ve never been a member). To explain. After twenty years hard graft… Read more

Street Music at Housmans Bookshop – December 2012

Audio recording of Mike Marqusee reading poems from Street Music at Housmans Bookshop, 12 December 2012. With questions and comments on topics poetical and political. Welcome and introduction Multiple Myeloma Street Music Object Lesson / Egypt / It should not be difficult Do not believe that we grow This morning’s surprise Naming the book and poets Poetic… Read more

My stay of execution from cancer

The Guardian, 11 December Figures released by the Office for National Statistics confirm that more people are recovering from, or living longer with, cancer. Welcoming the news, Mike Hobday of Macmillan Cancer Support observed that for many patients, “cancer is now a long-term condition rather than an acute disease”. And there’s the rub. Surviving, it… Read more