Alex Miller

Fidel's declarations of resistance

The Declarations of Havana
By Fidel Castro, with an introduction by Tariq Ali
Verso, 2008
138 pages, $26.95 (pb)

Rebus's exit

Exit Music
By Ian Rankin
Orion, 2007
460 pages, $26.95 (pb)

Sucking up to Blair

Blair Unbound
By Anthony Seldon (with Peter Snowdon & Daniel Collings)
Simon & Schuster, 2008
669 pages, Paperback $29.95

Green thoughts in a red shade

Granny Albyn’s Complaint
By David Betteridge
Smokestack Books, 2008
65 pages, £7.95
Available from http://www.smokestack-books.co.uk

Surviving the nights and imagining a new day

Hold Everything Dear: Dispatches on Survival & Resistance
By John Berger
Verso, 2008
142 pages, $26 (pb)

Engels: The Che Guevara of his day

Engels: A Revolutionary Life By John Green Artery Publications, 2008 347 pages, £10 (pb) Available from http://www.arterypublications.co.uk/ Most people know that Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) was the lifelong friend and collaborator of Karl

Britain: More nails in New Labour's coffin

Following disastrous performances in the English local council elections and the Crewe and Nantwich by-election in May, the ruling Labour Party suffered more humiliation at the hands of the electorate in the June 26 by-election in Henley-on-Thames.

Britain: 'Humiliating victory' in war on civil liberties

On June 11, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s proposals to extend the time that police are allowed to detain “terrorist suspects” without charge narrowly scraped through a vote in the House of Commons. The MP vote was 315 to 306 to back Brown’s proposal to extend the limit on detention without charge from 28 to 42 days.

Britain: New Labour crashes in Crewe

The New Labour government headed by PM Gordon Brown sank deeper into crisis after it lost the Crewe and Nantwich by-election — occasioned by the death of the sitting MP Gwyneth Dunwoody — to the Conservatives on May 22.

A complex socialist composer

Shostakovich: A Life
By Laurel E. Fay
Oxford University Press, 2005
458 pages, $47.95 (pb)

Britain: Strongman Brown comes unstuck

In the May 1 local council elections in England and Wales, the ruling Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, suffered its worst election defeat in 40 years.

Staying human in the face of horror

The Seventh Well
By Fred Wander, translated from the German by Michael Hoffman
WW Norton & Co, 2008
160 pages, $37.95 (hb)