Books and Magazines


'Tweenty–Nine Thousand Nights: A Communist Life is an unusual chronicle of the personal journey of Nan Berger through her writings, intelligence reports and visual images. From a wealthy middle class Northern family, Berger was drawn to the Communist Party in the 1930s because of her horror of fascism. Shocked by the tactics of the British police at an anti- fascist meeting, she became a lifelong campaigner for Civil Liberties. World War Two brought her into the civil service and she was awarded an OBE in 1948 for her work in the Ministry of Fuel. Nevertheless in the changed post-war world she found herself regarded as lacking qualifications. Through the Communist Party and the National Assembly of Women, Nan Berger became an early critic of gender inequality, writing Woman Fancy or Free? with Joan Maizels. This intriguing exploration of documents from one woman’s life conveys the many unexpected byways of left political commitment in the Twentieth Century, bringing to the surface a wider social history.’ ­– Sheila Rowbotham ‘Nan Berger is no Rosa Luxemburg or La Pasionaria but a conventional Englishwoman with not much in her head, from a respectable Tory home in Southport. Joining the Communist Party emancipates and educates her, opening her eyes to the world’s suffering and inequalities. With its collage of documents, MI5 surveillance reports and contemporary photographs, this is a vivid account of the transforming power of progressive politics in one woman’s life.’ – Alison Light Commissioned for Beyond Words, Ruth Ewan has unearthed an unpublished manuscript of Nan Berger (1914–1998) – international activist, writer and editor, and lifelong member of the Communist Party. Now a forgotten figure she gained brief public recognition for her work in the Ministry of Transport, resolving the coal crisis in the winter of 1947–48 for which she was awarded an OBE. Her autobiography is unfinished, consisting of contemporary notes alongside more detailed accounts of parts of her life: the anti-fascist struggles of the 1930s, pre-war USA, post-war life in Poland, China and her activities with the National Council of Civil Liberties and the anti-apartheid struggle. The gaps are filled by Ruth Ewan with archival material that ranges from MI5 surveillance files, family photographs, archived journals and publications, that presents evidence of an extraordinary life of radical politics and compassion for others. Ruth Ewan is an artist based in Glasgow, and is known for creating context specific artworks. She works with found material, history, collaborators and participants to realise her projects, which are often grounded in focused research into hidden social and political histories.

Ruth Ewan – Twenty-Nine Thousand Nights, a Communist Life by Nan Berger

Published by Public Bath Press, paperback + CD, 244 pp, 2019 "The acclaimed collection by Seiichi Yamamoto with all new art, photography and a new CD of remixed and new music by Omoide Hatoba and Suido Megane Satsujin Jiken." - Publisher Public Bath Press "Of course, Seiichi Yamomoto is famous as the visionary guitarist of The Boredoms, Omoide Hatoba, Rashinban, Live Under The Sky, Most, Para, Novo Tono and many, many, more projects. His solo work is extensive. He is also proprietor of live house Namba Bears, home of the most interesting shows in Osaka. In the mid-1990s, when Boredoms mania was at its peak, Yamamoto-san was asked by Guitar Magazine to write a regular column. This book represents the best of that writing, with added poetry, fiction and art. "Less well known, at least overseas, is that he is also a fine artist and photographer, having been featured in several solo shows at galleries. "Yamamoto-san has an enigmatic, opaque way of speaking/writing that can feel simultaneously very warm and somehow off-putting. He is basically a very shy person who yet seems to spend most of his time on a stage in the spotlight. "Ginga is the Japanese word for Milky Way, but here it is written in katakana and not its customary kanji (meaning silver river) so who knows if it means anything. He asked me if Gitabarrio, the repeating title of his column, meant anything to me. I said that I could see Gita, the song of the blessed one, and with a stretch, guitar, coming from his own barrio??? He merely smiled. Now it's your turn."- Translator Kato David Hopkins

Seiichi Yamamoto – Ginga + CD

The final iteration of Rainer's dance rant A Truncated History of the Universe for Dummies, accompanied by texts offering a real-time account of Rainer's creative process. Choreographer and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer has long investigated the ways in which movement can be a political act in and of itself—on the stage, on the screen, or at the lectern. In Revisions, Rainer pushes her interest in embodied activism to a new arena: what she calls the “dance rant.” This volume includes the final iteration of Rainer's latest dance rant, entitled A Truncated History of the Universe for Dummies. This performance piece evolved in live presentations in Dublin, Stockholm, and New York before being expanded and adapted in written form here. In this now-completed work, Rainer mobilizes her rage and bafflement at contemporary political events through the guise of Apollo, Leader of the Muses. Revisions also includes a compilation of emails and diary entries that provide a real-time account of Rainer's process of creating and workshopping a dance. “Pedagogical Vaudeville 3” reveals Rainer's consistent interest in reworking and reconsidering material across multiple mediums, formats, and contexts, and offers a unique glimpse at the working methods of one of this century's preeminent dance artists. Bookended with an introduction by artist and scholar Gregg Bordowitz and an analysis of Rainer's AG Indexical with a Little Help from H. M. by dance historian Anna Staniczenko, these texts serve not only as a revision of the conventional understanding of five decades of Rainer's production, but also as a timely manual for performance as an act of resistance.

Apollo Musagète, Yvonne Rainer, and Others by Yvonne Rainer – Revisions Essays

DAVID KATZ has written about the sounds and culture of Jamaica since 1984. His work has appeared in the Guardian, Newsweek, Mojo, Q, Wax Poetics, and The Wire, and in various music books. He has produced documentaries for radio, contributed to documentaries and feature films, and remains active as a vinyl DJ. Originally from San Francisco, he currently lives in London. Publisher ‏ : ‎ White Rabbit (14 Dec. 2021) Language ‏ : ‎ English Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 688 pagesArguably the most influential force in Jamaican music, Lee Perry brought Bob Marley to international stardom and has since collaborated with artists such as Sir Paul McCartney, The Clash and The Beastie Boys. The book delves behind the myth of Perry to give a fuller examination of his life and work through extensive interviews with family members, fellow artists, friends, lovers, enemies, as well as the man himself to present a complex portrait of a unique soul driven by unseen spiritual forces. This revised and expanded edition has been thoroughly updated and completely overhauled to render a more nuanced, accurate and accessible read, with new information on Perry's later years, including his Grammy Award, cessation of herb smoking and final passing, as well as previously unpublished information about his early life, his unique relationship with Marley, and his fabled Black Ark studio.

David Katz – People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee 'Scratch' Perry

180 x 255mm, 24 pages, two colour risograph printed interior, saddle stitched, letterpress printed softcover, 2023   Published by The Grass is Green in the Fields for YouTHEY SAID! simmers, boils and simmers again on the 1981 solo vocal composition Prelude to the Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc. Language, listening and voice are at the core of the essay. As is the relationship between Julius Eastman and Joan d’Arc which, as readers, we’re invited not to divide into two individual histories but encouraged to consider a singular position which both figures may have inhabited across distances. The essay opens with an exclamation mark which weaves through the text, alive with an open sense of speculation and inquiry as we explore the many facets of Prelude. Letter (writing) is a central reference — given Eastman’s penchant to put pen to paper, bringing the personal into the open — and the text itself reads like a letter being written or a conversation unfolding. It is swift and agile, carrying us along as it joins the dots, while breaking at times for a moment of improvisation, silence, or a prompt to speak. Formally, we hear the voices not just of Jessica, but of Eastman (of course!), Joan of Arc, Gertrude Stein and scholars of Eastman’s life, which offer a gentle introduction for those who may not be familiar with his life and work. An engagement with letters — as in correspondence as well as units of language — are at the core of our reading of the song. Complexity and simplicity were central to Eastman’s practice and character in the same way a letter can “tell all”, an exclamation mark can give a little more.

jessica higgins – they said! on Julius Eastman's Prelude to the holy presence of joan d'arc

116 x 182mm, 347 pages, Black & white printing, Perfect bound, Softcover, Pilot press, 2024 Timothy Thornton is a writer and musician. His work was in Volume 2 of the new Penguin Modern Poets series, and he has published eleven books of poetry with small presses. He organised two series of reading and performance nights in Brighton: ‘evenly and perversely’ and ‘WHAT YOU NEED’. He has composed and performed scores for productions at Battersea Arts Centre and The Yard Theatre.   ‘Candles and Water risks everything, daring to explore powerful vulnerabilities, yearning, and unabashed hope. Elusiveness and the whisperings of shadows inhabit these pages, always illuminated and burnished by the voice of a poet’.   — Thomas Glave, author of Among The Bloodpeople   ‘Timothy Thornton’s Candles and Water is a rare and transformational book, haunting, beautiful and watchful. Writing that follows its brush like Sei Shōnagon.’   — David Hayden, author of Darker with the Lights On   ‘These radical, scattered shards of life and sensation. . . come to a whole, coalescing like bioluminescence. . . witty, dark, profound, devastating. One long séance with a fellow human soul.’    — Philip Hoare, author of RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR  This collection is made of fictions and diaries, dreams and lists, lies and ghost stories. Its fragments and filaments are lonely, joyous, enraged, sickly, and lost; and when they crystallize around a single voice, it is by way of healing from grief and recovery from addiction.

Timothy Thornton – Candles and Water

published by Tenement Press & Prototype, 2023 Paperback; 140 x 216mm; 444pp; black-and-white images throughout Mario Dondero, Erica Baum, Jess Cotton, Rebecca Tamás, Raúl Guerrero, Stephen Watts, Helen Cammock, Salvador Espriu, Lucy Mercer, Olivier Castel, Lucy Sante, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Ryan Choi, John Yau, Nicolette Polek, Chris Petit, Sascha Macht, Amanda DeMarco, Mark Lanegan, Georgia May Jaeckle, Vala Thorodds, Richard Scott, Jonathan Chandler, Joshua Cohen, Sandro Miller, Hannah Regel, Nick Cave, Matthew Shaw, Daisy Lafarge, Jeffrey Vallance, Holly Pester, Matthew Gregory, Emmanuel Iduma, Joan Brossa, Cameron Griffiths, Levina van Winden, Imogen Cassels, Hisham Bustani, maia tabet, Aram Saroyan, Velimir Khlebnikov, Natasha Randall, Edwina Attlee, Jason Shulman, Aidan Moffat, Lesley Harrison, Oliver Bancroft, Lauren de Sá Naylor, Yasmine Seale, Will Eaves, James Hugunin, Glykeria Patramani, Cass McCombs, Will Oldham, Antonio Tabucchi, Elizabeth Harris, Nina Mingya Powles, Isabel Galleymore, Preti Taneja, Stanley Schtinter, Sophie Seita, Ralf Webb, Wayne Koestenbaum, Iain Sinclair, SJ Fowler, David Grubbs, Agustín Fernández Mallo, Pere Joan, Thomas Bunstead, John Divola, Adrian BridgetSeven Rooms brings together highlights from Hotel, a magazine for new approaches to fiction, non-fiction & poetry which, since its inception in 2016, provided a space for experimental reflection on literature’s status as art & cultural mediator. Co-published by Tenement Press and Prototype, this anthology captures, refracts, and reflects a vital moment in independent publishing in the UK, and is built on the shared values of openness, collaboration, and total creative freedom.

Anthology edited by Dominic J. Jaeckle & Jess Chandler – Seven Rooms