arts by Mark Fisher
Books > Time Bomb
Grant McKee and Ros Franey Muswell Press NUJ member Franey and the late McKee published this study of ‘Irish bombs, English justice and the Guildford Four’ in 1988. Now their exposure of this miscarriage of justice has been revised and updated with new material.
https://tinyurl.com/pmy62xmz
Dispatches from the Diaspora Gary Younge Faber The Orwell Prize for Journalism winner and NUJ member of honour takes us
In depth Far more than a Foot note
If you want a measure of how principled the late Paul Foot was, just consider the final piece he wrote for the Mirror. This was in 1993, some
time after Robert Maxwell had been found dead in the sea and been replaced by David Montgomery. Rather than ignore the new proprietor’s dismissal of NUJ activists, Foot made it the subject of his column. He also mentioned the 1,475,409 share options Montgomery had coming to him. Editor David Banks
refused to publish it. Foot got the page made up anyway and distributed it to his colleagues by hand. It was also reproduced here in The Journalist. Unsurprisingly, it marked the end of Foot’s award-
22 | theJournalist
winning tenure at the Mirror. Other members lost their jobs at the same time, triggering a two-year battle led by the NUJ’s general secretary, John Foster, resulting in a substantial payout. In its fearlessness, the
tale is typical of Foot, although his focus was rarely so close to home. He
was better known for championing causes on behalf of society’s voiceless. Paul Foot: a Life in
Politics, a gripping biography by his colleague and fellow NUJ member Margaret Renn, catalogues the journalist’s exposure of cover-ups and injustices. These range from the sinking of the Belgrano to the murder of Carl Bridgewater, the state’s attacks on the striking miners and the prosecution of the Guildford Four. It is a story of the
radicalisation of a privileged man whose career took him from Glasgow’s Daily Record to Private Eye and Socialist Worker. As well as turning out books and pamphlets, he
was a tireless campaigner who honed his oratorical gifts to become a big draw as a speaker. For Foot, writing and political engagement were one and the same. He was also an expert
on Orwell and Shelley, whose radical agenda he applauded and whose poetry he could quote at length. Such was Foot’s
involvement in the key events of his day that Renn’s book reads like a 20th-century primer, a history not only of a gifted journalist prepared to hold power to account but also of the political flashpoints that defined his age. Paul Foot: A Life in
Politics, Verso, out now https://tinyurl. com/25phe7k
‘from Nelson Mandela to Black Lives Matter’ in this anthology on race, racism and black life and death that covers three decades of journalism.
https://tinyurl.com/26afkopg
A Liveable Future is Possible Noam Chomsky and CJ Polychroniou Haymarket Books Political economist Polychroniou conducts a series of interviews with Chomsky about ‘confronting the threats to our survival’. Subjects they cover include AI, the climate crisis, neo-fascism and US foreign policy.
https://tinyurl.com/26b82j24
Believe Nothing Until it Is Officially Denied Patrick Cockburn Verso Graham Greene called Claud Cockburn the greatest journalist of the 20th century. A foreign correspondent on The Times, he was also a communist, contrarian and soldier – he wrote dispatches while fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Now his son Patrick Cockburn, also a journalist, praises the ‘invention of guerrilla journalism’ and asks whether it can still change the world.
https://tinyurl.com/28recdaw
Comedy > Andy Zaltzman: The Zaltgeist
On tour Until April 25 Best known as host of BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz – as well as a Taskmaster contestant and Test Match Special commentator – Zaltzman does a lap of the country on his biggest- ever tour with his patent mix of silliness, outrage and political bite.
https://tinyurl.com/28bsvsmk
Exhibitions > Skin/Deep: Perspectives on
the Body Photo Museum Ireland, Dublin Until February 8 Nine photographers based in Ireland consider gender, sexuality and selfhood as they focus on the body from different perspectives.
https://tinyurl.com/23htkbqa
Linder: Danger Came Smiling Southbank Centre, London February 11–May 5 Emerging from the punk scene of 1970s Manchester, Linder has played with montage, photography, performance and sculpture as she explores the body from a feminist perspective. The retrospective tours to Edinburgh, Swansea and Blackpool.
https://tinyurl.com/24vpgzrr
The 80s: Photographing Britain Until May 5 Tate Britain, London Images of protest and change in this radical view of a turbulent decade. The exhibition looks at the work of photography collectives and magazines in making visible the riots, strikes and political struggles of the day.
https://tinyurl.com/2amt33qn
Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf On tour Until October 18 Taking up a series of mini-residencies in UK towns, the scathingly funny stand-up and Observer columnist aims to unleash his inner Man-Wulf in an effort to stop being ‘culturally irrelevant and physically enfeebled’.
https://tinyurl.com/y9ybmgjw
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