Category Archives: novels

My review of “No Going Back” 40 years of the  North Staffordshire Miners’ Wives Action Group.

Posted on August 29, 2024 by lipstick socialist

In May 1993 as part of the Kate Magee Support Group I headed over to Stoke to meet up with the North Staffordshire Miners Wives Action Group. I arrived at Trentham colliery as Bridget Bell, Brenda Proctor and Gina Earle … Continue reading →

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Margaret Mullarkey of Bolton Irish in Britain Representation Group; her life seen through the eyes of her children.

Posted on January 17, 2024 by lipstick socialist

  In the history of the Irish in Britain Representation Group many women were active; but,  as in other organisations,  their role has been often  marginalised and underestimated. One of those women was  Margaret Mullarkey of Bolton IBRG. Sadly, she … Continue reading →

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My review of “The Sky is Falling” by Lorenza Mazzetti

Posted on September 24, 2023 by lipstick socialist

Lorenza Mazzetti (1927-2020) was a  writer, filmmaker,  and theatre puppeteer who wrote this, her first novel,  in 1962, published as II Cielo cade. It was only published in this country in 2022. “The Sky is Falling” is a fictionalised account … Continue reading →

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After the end of the Miners’ Strike in 1985 Rose Hunter says: “Men lost their freedom; the women gained theirs.” Rose and her sisters in the  North Staffs Miners Wives Action Group  then embarked on forty years of  raising  issues about jobs and communities and making  links with other progressive strikes and organisations.

Posted on September 10, 2020 by lipstick socialist

Rose comes from a mining family. Her father, Denzil, was Indian who  went to Scotland and became a miner. Her mother, Mary, is from a Scots Irish background. The family moved to the Potteries for her father’s work in the … Continue reading →

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My review of “Just Like Tomorrow” (2004) by Faiza Guene

Posted on May 27, 2020 by lipstick socialist

  What do you want to do ? New mailCopy It is hard to imagine a working class female migrant from the deprived areas of Clayton (Manchester), Glodwick  (Oldham ) or Hyde (Tameside) being offered a book contract. Faiza is … Continue reading →

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My review of “They Divided the Sky” A Novel by Christa Wolf. (2013)

Posted on April 18, 2020 by lipstick socialist

What do you want to do ? New mailCopy Christa Wolf (1929-2011) was an East German (GDR) novelist. Born into the Nazi era,  like many of her generation (in the east and the west) she embraced socialism after the war … Continue reading →

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My review of “Common Cause” by Kate Hunter

Posted on June 27, 2019 by lipstick socialist

  KATE Hunter, a working class writer and political activist, recognises the massive barriers facing any person   from her background who wants to write. At the age of  nine she won a  National Essay prize,  but there was no encouragement … Continue reading →

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My review of “I Have No Regrets: Diaries, 1955-1963” Brigitte Reimann

Posted on March 25, 2019 by lipstick socialist

    Brigitte Reimann was an East German writer and  an avid chronicler of her own  life through her diaries. In this new book we follow her as she becomes a successful writer, but at a turbulent time for her … Continue reading →

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My review of “High Wages” Dorothy Whipple

Posted on February 20, 2019 by lipstick socialist

  High Wages is set in 1912 and describes the lives of many young women of that era who had  limited educational and career options. Jane Carter, the heroine of this novel, is a Northern young woman who has to … Continue reading →

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My review of “A Most Unladylike Occupation” Lisa Wright

Posted on September 8, 2018 by lipstick socialist

  Lucy Deane was one of the first female Factory Inspectors in 1893. In this novel, Lisa Wright, a distant relative of Lucy’s, captures the life and history of a pioneering woman. It was the Home Secretary, Herbert Asquith, who … Continue reading →

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