The right to roam

by Ben Soton

Contested Commons – A History of Protest and Public Space in England by Katrina Navickas; Reaktion Books, London 2025; 384 pp. Hbk £20

The pages of the New Worker are full of articles and stories about protests be they progressive reactionary or anything in between.  But what of the places, usually outdoors spaces, where protests take place? 
Sometimes these places are the subject of protest themselves.  In Contested Commons, Katrina Navickas provides the story of these places.  Her book covers the history of public spaces and their role in popular protest.
A book like this should be welcomed at a time when the right to protest is under attack. 
First of all it challenges the “myth of the commons” – the idea that at some point in time we all had access to common land which was later on stolen by the landowners. The problem is that no such Golden Age existed.  Although enclosures of common land did become widespread from the Tudor times, there is little actual evidence that any such Golden Age ever existed. Another theme is the concept of Enclosure versus Commoning.  For instance in her section covering the anti-roads protests of the 1990s, Navickas sees the road builders as enforcing enclosure and the anti-road protesters as defending the ancient commons.     
The book is written in two halves.  The first concentrating on the rural man-made landscape; with chapters including Commons, Waste and Verges.  This section begins with examples of enclosures of common land in the 18th Century as well as the mass Kinder Scout Trespass protest in the 1930s and the Right to Roam.
The second part of the book covers urban protest with chapters named after street furniture such as, Railings, Pavements and Barricades. Railings is a reference to the protests during the  Second Reform Act of 1867, (which enfranchised urban, male property owners) where protesters used the railings surrounding Hyde Park to defend themselves from attack by the police. Barricades is a reference to the Battle of Cable Street when the people took to the streets to beat back the Mosleyites on the streets of London’s East End in 1936.  Later chapters cover events such as the Battle of the Bean Field in 1985; an event that took place during the miners’ strike which the author makes no mention of.  And it ends with coverage of the New Age Travellers of the 1990s, which she refers to simply as New Travellers.  
In a recent article in the Morning Star Ian Sinclair points out that “92 per cent of land and 97 per cent of rivers in England” are not legally accessible.  Subsequently, a book that covers issues of land ownership and common land is to be recommended.  Whilst with the legitimate right to protest under attack it is reminding us of the long history of protest in the country.   

 

The cruel Atlantic trade

by Ben Soton

The Great Resistance – The 400-Year to end Slavery in The Americas by Carrie Gibson, Basic Books, New York 2026, 640 pp, Hbk £30 Pbk £20

The 16th Century saw the opening up of the Americas and the establishment of transatlantic trade routes.  The trade in sugar, cotton and tobacco was central to the development of capitalism and with it the industrial revolution; central to this process was the trade in human capital across the Atlantic ocean.
In this book Carrie Gibson gives a detailed account of resistance to this evil institution. 
She pieces together a myriad of small texts and in so constructs the four-hundred-year history of slavery in the Americas. It begins in the late 1400s and ends in 1888 with the abolition of slavery in Brazil. 
The transatlantic slave trade was initiated by Spain and Portugal and later involved Britain, France and to a lesser extent the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.  Resistance took many forms, including suicide, while rebellions took place almost as soon as the slave-trade began.  Resistance also took the form of guerilla warfare. Slave revolts took place wherever slavery existed and were more widespread than many of us may have previously been aware.
The book goes into considerable detail as to how the major events of late 18th century contributed to the ending of slavery.  The American War of Independence saw both sides offering to free slaves prepared to join their fight. The French Revolution, with its emphasis of ‘The Rights of Man’, influenced the successful revolt in Haiti – the first state to abolish slavery in the Caribbean. It was not the actions of well-meaning white folk but the result of the actions of slaves themselves that ended slavery; a theme that the author stresses throughout the book.  
Gibson downplays the role of Royal Navy’s West African Squadron in ending the slave trade in 1807.  Gibson points out that most of the captives liberated were not returned to Africa but ended up in the Americas as indentured labourers.  She also points out that the African Squadron was more of a means of extending Britain’s imperial interests in Africa than actually helping Africans.  On a more surprising note the author is highly critical of Simon Bolivar, a hero of the Latin American left, whose attitude to people of colour was at best ambiguous.   
The 19th century saw the gradual abolition of slavery across the Americas. It did not result in an age of prosperity for the former enslaved people; after all it was their former owners who received compensation. The freed slaves still suffered from the ravages of colonialism, segregation and racism. Problems that are for the most part unresolved. The book stands as a testimony to those who fought against the evil institution of slavery.    

Dark tales from Scotland

by Ben Soton

Silent Bones by Val McDermid, Sphere (Little Brown Book Group) London. Hbk: 2025, 448pp, rrp £22.00. Pbk: 2026; rrp £10.99.

This is  Val McDermid’s latest Karen Pirie crime thriller. Two others, The Darker Domain and The Distant Echo, have already been adapted for television. This, the eighth  featuring DCI Karen Pirie and her team who make up Edinburgh’s Historic Cases Unit (HCU), touches on the corrupt and sordid side of Scottish politics. 

This one, Silent Bones, begins with a mud-slide which unearths the body of a murdered investigative journalist.  Meanwhile the death of a hotel manager, originally believed to be an accident, soon turns out to be suspicious. The HCU soon discover the two deaths to be interlinked. They unearth the cover up of a violent rape at a pro-independence event as well as betting and match fixing scams featuring a shady elite book club called the ‘Justified Sinners’. But the ‘Sinners’ is more like a masonic lodge than a book club where potential members will literally kill to gain admittance.         
The Justified Sinners, a reference to an 1824 novel by James Hogg, is based on the Protestant concept of Predestination. where members of the “elect” can commit any sin they like as they are guaranteed a place in heaven – an obvious swipe at the Calvinist dogma of the Church of Scotland. This could also be a reference to the Epstein Files, where men from elite backgrounds are engaged in criminal and degenerate behaviour including paedophilia. 
Meanwhile DCI Pirie and her team come to life as real characters as their complex personal lives weave into the story.  Both of her assistants, Detective Sergeants Jason Murray and Daisy Mortimer, manage to use their partners in the investigation while Karen Pirie, a single woman in her thirties ends a relationship with her Syrian refugee lover. This backstory is an example of McDermid’s liberalism which views the Assad Government as the epitome of evil whilst portraying the new regime cobbled together from various Al Qaeda affiliates as an opportunity to re-build the country. She overlooks the persecution of religious minorities, not to mention the privatisation of national assets and collaboration with the murderous Zionist state by the new regime.  
The novel also delves into the differences between English and Scottish law. In England, an arrest must be necessary for specific reasons. In Scotland, an officer can arrest if they have reasonable grounds to suspect an offence was committed.
 This is a thoroughly well written, great thriller but is also testimony to the author’s bourgeois liberalism. McDermid sees corruption and degenerate behaviour as something that can be rooted out rather than an integral part of capitalism. We’ve heard that one before...  

The Chosen Men return!

 by Ben Soton

Sharpe’s Storm by Bernard Cornwell, Harper-Collins. Hbk: 2025, 368pp, rrp £22.00. Sbk: 2026, 368pp, rrp £9.99. Audio: 628 minutes, rrp £17.99.

This is Bernard Cornwell’s 24th novel in the Sharpe series – set in 1813, as the British army along with their Spanish and Portuguese allies advance into France during the Napoleonic wars. Most of the Sharpe novels are set during the war with France when Britain was aligned with the absolute monarchies of Prussia, Russia and Austria. So I wouldn’t imagine the Sharpe saga, with its glorification of war, especially a conflict where this country was arguably on the wrong side, to be especially popular on the left.           
What of the character Sharpe? Richard Sharpe was born around 1780 in poverty, becomes involved in crime.  In the television series, Sharpe, played by Sean Bean, is a Yorkshireman; in the original novels he is a Londoner.  He eventually joins the army and begins a successful military career.  So successful that he is given a commission by Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington.  This gives him both strength and vulnerability.  On the one hand he is Wellington’s man, giving him a degree of protection. But he lacks the wealthy connections of most other officers and therefore Wellington can easily break him as he could make him.  
For this reason Sharpe is often given dangerous missions; in the case of Sharpe’s Storm Admiral Sir Joel Chase.  has been tasked by Wellington to overview the river Ardour, check its bridges and examine the possibility of getting warships down it. This is made increasingly difficult as the events take place during a storm.  Although Sharpe is admired by the military top brass, he still manages to make enemies amongst junior officers from the ranks of the gentry. In this story Sir Nathaniel Peacock, a man who obviously bought his commission and with limited experience, is a liability.  Peacock continually reminds Sharpe of his social superiority; which Sharpe is able to brush off with a degree of humour and sarcasm.
The idea of Sharpe is based on the notion that the ruling class, which may contain a few bad apples (anyone who has watched the news recently knows that it is more than just a few), is fundamentally good, recognises talent and is willing to occasionally bring in new blood.  This positive view of the ruling class explains why the series is popular on the right.  Sharpe, although a fundamentally decent individual, has absolutely no concept of class loyalty. Meanwhile the character also has deep insecurities; which emanate from the knowledge that he may never be fully accepted.  Thus accepting the limitations of meritocracy. Sharpe is ultimately a mercenary for his own ruling class.

Stone Age stories

 by Ben Soton

Circle of Days by Ken Follett, Grand Central Publishing; 2025, hbk  608pp rrp £25. pbk rrp £10.99.

For years Ken Follett has long been a master of both contemporary and historical fiction.  His latest novel, Circle of Days, takes us back to ancient Britain – a time after the development of agriculture but before writing reached these shores. The building of Stonehenge is a major aspect of the book; a monument still standing just a few miles outside Salisbury in Wiltshire, the area referred to as the Great Plain. 
This is the first major novel set during the prehistoric era since Bernard Cornwell wrote Stonehenge in 2000. The two novels present very contrasting views of the period. Cornwell’s novel portrays a society with an existing hierarchy; Circle of Days is set in a more anarchic world with competing and sometimes conflicting communities – farmers, herders, ‘woodland folk’, flint miners and a caste of priestesses.  Follett paints a world of conflict. 
The farmers are the emerging and most powerful group with an element of the story focussing on the age-old rivalry between them and the herders – the basis of the Cain and Abel myth. Meanwhile the woodland folk, obviously the remnants of  the hunter-gatherer society, appear to be doomed. The novel shows the different attitudes and cultures of the rival groups.  Women within the farming community are seen as property of their men whilst the woodland folk practice a form of free-love. The priestesses are an overwhelmingly lesbian grouping; while being the only ones who can count.
 Follett, who is not a Marxist, is painting a picture of an emerging class society. It is widely known that farming triumphed over hunter-gathering and herding, eventually leading to class-society and the rest is history. The author, who has always favoured class compromise, predictably sides with those in the various communities who favour compromise and negotiation. As the story develops, we see tit-for-tat warfare between the rival groupings; which includes the burning of the forest by herders and attacks on grain stores by woodlanders. 
The building of the henge takes place in the later stages of the novel; its construction is the idea of Joia, a priestess who sees it as a means of uniting the rival groupings and bringing more people to the Great Plain. Its construction is opposed by Troon, the leader of the farmers with designs on domination over the region.  As Joia builds the Henge he builds an army.  However are these not two sides of the same coin?  Standing armies and megaliths are both features of a class society; with warriors and priests (in this case priestesses) becoming part of the new ruling-class. 
This is pure Follett; delving into the personal and often the sex lives of the key characters. It has a strong resemblance to his 1989 novel Pillars of the Earth, set around the building of a cathedral in 12th century England. Both novels are based on the premise of ‘Build it and They Will Come’.  As a novel set in pre-history much of the story is down to the author’s imagination; however it is a fitting tribute to those who built Stonehenge.       
  

Nuclear power and the Green agenda

 by Ben Soton

The Poverty of Green Philosophy – A Marxist Case for Nuclear Energy in a Cooperative World by Bill Sacks and Greg Meyerson. Carus Books, 2026. Paperback: 400pp, rrp £21.99.

In this detailed study Sacks and Meyerson deliver a Marxist case for nuclear energy.  They also undertake a critique of Green Philosophy; both its eco-socialist and eco-modernist (pro-capitalist) variants. Their argument centres on the failings of Renewable Energy and they accept the existence of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) –  the process of climate change since the Industrial Revolution.  
Sacks and Meyerson claim that although solar and wind power are free and in abundant supply they are highly inefficient; resulting in a very low Energy Return on Investment (EROI).  Their study points to the high input of land required for both solar power and wind farms, combined with a low output. They state that waste solar panels are highly polluting and that both forms of renewable energy lack the efficiency of nuclear power.  The precious metals required for the production of solar panels would result in price rises for materials already needed for the production of consumer goods such as computers and mobile phones.  Perhaps the crux of their argument is that nuclear fuel can be re-used whilst uranium can be extracted from seawater; making its supply almost endless.    
Strong Nuclear Force, the strongest force in the known universe, holds together the nuclei of atoms.  If released through nuclear fission it can produce enormous levels of energy, with a subsequently high EROI.  Sacks and Meyerson attempt to reassure us about the safety of nuclear power plants and concerns over radiation. The accidents at Chernobyl in 1987 and Fukushima in 2011 were not the same as nuclear bomb blasts but steam turbine explosions and the corresponding damage done by radiation has been exaggerated. Meanwhile they remind us that radiation is omitted from numerous sources including rocks, various food stuffs including bananas as well as mobile phones, microwave ovens and building materials.
Sacks and Meyerson make coherent case against the Green Left. They argue that an economy based entirely on renewables would result a net drop in energy use and a subsequent decline in economic growth and living standards. As one would expect they are highly critical of the “small is beautiful” argument put forward by the economist E F Schumacher. 
Schumacher favoured small scale, handicraft industry over large scale production claiming that capitalism had destroyed locally based handicraft industries. Central to this view is that nuclear power, with its highly centralised power plants is inherently capitalist; whilst renewables, which tend to be much more dispersed are inherently socialist. The authors advocate control over the nuclear industry by a socialist state. In other words socialism means scaling up not scaling down. 
It should be pointed out that renewables are still in their infancy compared to both nuclear and fossil fuels. The first wind farm in Britain opened in 1991 whereas the use of nuclear power dates back to the 1950s.  Why not advocate greater research and development into renewables; with a view to using them alongside nuclear power?
Meanwhile with climate-denialism on the rise, a critique of it might be a good idea; however the book presents some excellent arguments about the failure of capitalism.  Sacks and Meyerson’s argument is nonetheless a highly valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion around the obvious need to de-carbonise energy production.

The History of an Idea

  by Ben Soton

The West - The History of an Idea by Georgios Varouxakis, Princeton University Press 2025, 512 pp, Hbk: £35:00

The West is more of an idea than a place  and in this book Georgios Varouxakis traces its history. The concept of ‘The West’ can be traced through a series of historical events; the Greco-Persian Wars of the fifth century BC; the division of the Roman Empire into East and West in the fourth century AD and with the Empire of Charlemagne in the ninth century becoming Western Christendom. The idea crystallised in the 18th  and 19th centuries with the Enlightenment and the development of liberty and democracy. There has to be some reference to geography as it is a point on a map; its core is Western Europe and later came to include North America and Australasia. 
According to Varouxakis the idea of the ‘West’ was developed by the French philosopher Auguste Comte.  Comte developed the idea of Occidentalism in which he saw The West as in the vanguard of humanity that, due to its superiority, had been given a leadership role over the rest of the world. Although Comte was a critic of imperialism his ideas have been used to justify actions of imperialist powers from the 19th century onwards whilst the ‘West’. as distinct from Europe, stood in opposition to Russia – which then and still today was seen as Eastern and despotic.         
Varouxakis traces how the idea of the West evolved from the 19th  and 20th centuries to today’s modern world.  He explains how Russia became excluded from the West and how the whole concept came unstuck during the First World War when Turkey and Russia joined the fray. Germany claimed to be defending the West against ‘Asiatic’ Russia while the Entente Powers pointed to the German alliance with Ottoman Turkey. These problems continued through the inter-war years with talk of the decline of the West while toward the end of Second World War the entry of the United States led to increasing talk of the ‘Atlantic Community’ as distinct from the West.  The chapter on the Cold War covers the twists and turns of European and American foreign policy; both in relation to the socialist camp and towards each other.  
The Second World War has often been viewed as a conflict between pro and anti-Enlightenment ideologies with liberalism, represented by Anglo-American and French imperialism,and socialism led by the Soviet Union having their roots in the 18th century ‘Enlightenment’.  Fascism, on the other hand, is opposed to the Enlightenment and the ideas of the French Revolution. 
This is touched upon in the chapter on the post-Cold-War era which states there is a traditional West based on classical civilisation and Christianity and a modern West based on the Enlightenment. It  has even been said that the Cold War was a conflict between the two pro-Enlightenment ideologies of socialism and liberalism – a conflict between liberty and democracy.  
The chapter on the post Cold War era focuses on Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilisations and the End of History by Francis Fukuyama. Huntington believed that with the end of the Cold War the West faced new challenges from rival civilisations, which he lists as Islamic, Orthodox, Hindu, Japanese and possibly African and South American. Fukuyama simply claimed that fall of the Soviet Union was the final triumph of the West.            
This book is a history of the idea and not a critique of it. However the twists and turns around what constitutes the West indicate serious flaws with the concept. Some of worst conflicts in history have been between Western powers; not just the first and second world wars but also the Napoleonic wars, the Thirty Years War and the Hundred Years War to name but a few. In living memory the ‘West’ has been used as a euphemism for US-led imperialism and the self-styled Western ‘democracies’ who have been more than willing to support feudal tyrants opposed to secularism or socialism to maintain their hegemony over much of the Global South.

Requiem for a War-Criminal

by Ben Soton

What’s it like to sit down and talk to a mass murderer? To have a chat with Harry Truman, Benjamin Netanyahu or in the case of the film Nuremberg, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring.
The film is based on the book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai and its main focus is the relationship between the US Army Psychiatrist Dr Douglas M Kelly, played by Rami Malek and Hermann Göring, played by Russell Crowe.
When reviewing this film it is worth comparing it to a previous incarnation; the two-part mini-series Nuremberg released in 2000. In the earlier version all twenty-two defendants were mentioned. In this film there was only mention of five; the lead defendant Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Julius Streicher, Admiral Karl Doenitz and the head of the German Labour Front, Robert Ley. 
At the Nuremberg Nazi war-crimes trial the prosecution team was drawn from all four members of the victorious Grand Alliance – the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France. In this film only two of the prosecutors are depicted –Justice Jackson from the USA, played by Michael Shannon and Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, played by Richard E Grant, from Great Britain. Russell Crowe gives an excellent depiction of Herman Göring as a vanquished foe who has lost none of his arrogance emanating from being Hitler’s deputy.
But this is more than just a court-room drama.The film includes a scene where footage of the atrocities committed in the concentration camps is screened as evidence in the trial of the top Nazis to remind the audience, now far-removed from the dark days of the 1940s, of what the Allies were up against in the Second World War.
The psychiatrist Dr Kelly tries to get inside  Göring’s head and is asked to use his understanding to aid the prosecution. He initially argues against this on the grounds of doctor-patient confidentiality. However he then goes on to give information about his interviews to a not unattractive British journalist played by Lydia Peckham while planning to use the information to write a book.
But Kelly’s views on the Nazis were not popular with the US military establishment. He was sidelined and later replaced by Dr Gustave Gilbert, played by Colin Hanks. Although he later became the head of the Department of Psychology at Berkeley his book 22 Cells in Nuremberg did not give him the fame he had hoped for. Though this did not affect his post-war career he  had a drink problem and committed suicide in 1958.
In the final analysis Kelly claimed the Nazis were not unique and that there are people like them in every country, including the United States. On this point he has been proved right more times than I can count.

1066 and all that...

by Ben Soton

BBC1’s Sunday night drama, King & Conqueror, opens up one of Early Medieval Europe’s most important events – the Norman conquest.
This is not the time of absolute monarchs with grandiose palaces; it is the dog-eat-dog world of early feudalism. Loyalties had little to do with nationality, which arose centuries later but a world where your local or regional overlord or earl often mattered more than the titular monarch. A world power came out of the blade of a sword and was held by rival warlords and schemers. It had a greater resemblance to Game of Thrones than The Tudors.
King & Conqueror traces the trials and tribulations of Harold Godwinson, the Earl of Wessex (played by James Norton) and William of Normandy (played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau); whose rivalry for the English Crown came to a head at Hastings in 1066. The drama paints a story of two similar men; both at the higher end of the feudal hierarchy and of a similar age. Both were outstanding warriors – much like the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada, the other claimant for the English throne, who was killed by Harold along with most of his men only a few weeks before the fateful battle of Hastings. 
It was a clash of titans and a case of last man standing. It all begins around the time of the coronation of Edward the Confessor (played by Eddie Marsan) and ends with the Battle of Hastings. Whilst Harold and William are portrayed as heroic figures and family men; Edward is portrayed as a weak, over pious man with no interest in women. In the drama he is easily manipulated by his mother Emma of Normandy (played by Juliet Stevenson) and later his
wife, Gunhild (played by Bo Bragason). In a show of defiance he batters his mother to death with the crown. Although this is fiction it is widely believed that she was plotting against her son the king.
Although the portrayal of Edward the Confessor may be exaggerated it is probably an attempt to show him in contrast to the machismo of Harold and William. However there is considerable evidence that Edward, whose wife was also Harold’s sister was celibate partly for religious reasons hence the title Edward the Confessor – though the desire to thwart the Godwin clan’s dynastic ambitions was clearly another pressing motive.
There’s all sorts of other historical inaccuracies in the series. But, of course, this is not a drama-documentary but historical fiction like Shakespeare’s romps through the Wars of the Roses and the Hundred Years War with France. The series does, however, manage to capture the feudal power play of the period. In its favour the series does not take the side of either protagonist; Harold was simply the most powerful man in England whilst William may have been Edward the Confessor’s preferred successor. In the final analysis William triumphed on the battlefield.
Meanwhile King & Conqueror makes enjoyable and gripping entertainment with epic battle scenes in the final episodes. Finally however tough life may have been for the likes of William and Harold life was much harder for their subjects.

Not so set in stone?

 

by Ben Soton

Myths of Geography: Eight Ways We Get the World Wrong by Paul Richardson;  The Bridge Street Press Group (Hatchette) London 2024, 288pp, rrp £12.99

If you walk in most bookshops there is an extensive History section, another for Politics and Current affairs as well as another called Mind, Body and Spirit. However there is no separate Geography section, with books in the field located either on the history or science shelves.  The subject is, at best, a poor relation to history or even a subject in its own right.  Its meaning comes from the Ancient Greek word geo, meaning Earth. Hence the word ‘geography’ means ‘study of the Earth’.

Geography is therefore a wide-ranging subject, overlapping into history, politics and sociology as well as science.  Subsequently it is open to many widespread myths.  And in this book Paul Richardson examines some of these myths.
Richardson points that the division between Europe and Asia has almost nothing to do with Geography as is entirely political.  He adds that the nation state is a recent creation and often a result of elite manipulation. He also criticises the role played by European colonialism in Africa and elsewhere; explaining how many of Africa’s problems emanate with this legacy, which is in any case far from over.
The chapter on Russia focuses on what he calls revanchism, meaning a desire to re-gain lost territory.  He criticises Vladimir Putin’s work, On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians  in which the Russian President claims, with some accuracy, that Russia’s origins lie in Ukraine with the Kievan Russ and that the peoples of Russia and Ukraine share a common heritage.
But Richardson makes no mention of 30 years of Nato expansion, or the events of 2014 when the United States and the European Union supported a fascist backed Euro-Maidan coup. Whatever one’s view of the Russian intervention in Ukraine the Kremlin’s actions are nothing compared to the genocide committed by Israel in Gaza.  Putin believes, rightly or wrongly, that Ukrainians and Russians are one and the same; he is not trying to exterminate them.  Richardson makes no mention of the Palestinian struggle; which considering it has been front page news for almost three years and is an issue rooted in geography is rather odd.    
As a liberal, Richardson is critical of some of the actions of imperialism, namely those committed in the last century. At the same time he rubbishes those trying to create an alternative, such as China’s Belt & Road project.  Instead of nationalism he advocates virtual, web-based communities as new forms of identity while making no reference to the most important factor that both divides us from our actual enemies and unites us with genuine allies – namely class.  
Nations are contradictory entities. Nationalism can in certain circumstances be a force for good; namely if it stands in opposition absolute monarchs or imperialism.  I dare say there is a parallel universe where this country is occupied by a foreign power –  were this the case covering lamp-posts and painting roundabouts with George Crosses might not be such a bad thing. However in this part of the space time continuum it is simply not the case.  Replacing nations with bogus notions of ‘identity’ are simply another distraction from the class struggle. 

Lines on Maps

by Ben Soton

 A History of The World in 47 Borders: The Stories Behind the lines on Maps by John Elledge. Wildfire Headline Publishing Group. Pbk: 2025, 384pp, rrp £10.99. Hbk: 2024, 368pp, rrp £25.

Written by podcaster and journalist, John Elledge, this book goes a great deal of the way to explaining how borders have shaped history and how history has shaped borders.  His work, which comes under the field of historical geography, starts with the ancient world and ends in the present day. It contains a plethora of interesting facts making the study of borders a unique angle from which to view history.  
Ultimately borders arose with the first civilisations and the advent of class society; marking out the line where the power of one ruler ended and another began. For much of human history there were large parts of the planet not controlled by any specific state – or at least no one recognised by those who made the maps. It is often said that history is written by the victors. we could also add that so are maps.  
The book defines what a border is which is not the same as a boundary as well as citing numerous disputed frontiers. Some borders were created by external forces; namely foreign officials drawing lines on a map such as the Sykes-Picot agreement that divided up the Middle East between Britain and France during World War I or the carve up of Africa decades earlier. These borders, noticeable by their straight lines, make no consideration of local factors and often divide long established communities. Other borders, such as those in Europe are based on natural boundaries such as rivers. However even this has its pitfalls with rivers often changing course; moving in one direction or another.
The History of The World in 47 Borders starts in Ancient Egypt and ends in outer space –  apparently there is even disagreement as to where space begins.  The chapter on feudalism is interesting; the author points out that the term was not used until the early modern period when the system was on its way out. Meanwhile when anyone says that as far as open borders are concerned, they are to the right of Genghis Khan, they need reminding that the Mongol Empire was a borderless zone from the Pacific to the borders of Hungary.
Borders are in the news at the moment and are likely to be for some time. They may well still be a necessary evil and frankly getting rid of them is almost certainly utopian. But if you want a better understanding of the issue then reading this book may be a start.            

Double trouble with Susan Ryeland

by Ben Soton

Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz, Penguin Cornerstone 2025; pbk 592 pp, rrp £9.99

This is the third in a series of novels featuring Susan Ryeland; the others being Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders, both of which have been televised.  Susan Ryeland is arguably a modern Miss Marple; instead of a spinster living in a quaint West Country village she is a career woman working as an editor for a publishing company.  Like Miss Marple she has never been married and at fifty-five unlikely to have children; instead she appears to be constantly in and out of unsuccessful relationships.  
All three books are in effect two novels in one.  One being a murder set in the present day and the second, the novel that Ryeland is editing set in the 1950s and featuring the fictional detective Atticus Pünd. 
Pünd, a refugee from Nazi Germany, is a kind of post-war Poirot. And the essence of all three books is that the fictional novel contains the secret to the murder set in the present day. 
In Marble Hall Murders an up-and-coming author, Elliot Grace, has been commissioned to write Pünd’s Last Case.  Grace, a troubled young man with a tainted past uses the novel to expose his grandmother’s murder.  As with the previous books the characters in the Punt novel mirror with those in the present-day story.  
Meanwhile we see the return of murderer, Charles Glover, from Magpie Murders; although this time incarcerated in Belmarsh Prison wearing a grey tracksuit instead of Saville Row attire.  Glover makes the comment that prison is easier for men who’ve been to public school.  
A feature of the book (or book within a book) is that the author effectively reviews the Pünd novel as she narrates the modern-day story.  She regularly asks questions related to matters of historical accuracy and often what would appear to be minor issues. This taking the reader into the world of publishing.
Meanwhile although I established the identity of the murderer in the Pünd novel (I am no detective) the reader is kept guessing as to the identity of the killer in the present-day story or perhaps even questioning if there was a murder at all; the victim being in her eighties and suffering from a heart condition.       
Moonflower Murders is a story of revenge and anger spanning generations as well as different time periods.  Ryeland searches the novel for anagrams and cryptic clues as to the killer’s identity.  I understand the book will soon become a television series. I look forward to watching it.  But Horowitz leaves us in an element of suspense as to whether there will be another Atticus Pünd /Susan Ryeland novel.     

The borderlands of history

by Ben Soton

 
The Far Edges of the Known World – A New History of the Ancient Past: Owen Rees: Bloomsbury Publishing London 2025; 384 pp; hbk: £25

The ancient world is often seen as a history of empires and the cataclysmic clashes between them. These empires include that of Egypt, Persia, the short-lived Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great and, of course, Rome.  Owen Rees’s new book covers the many places on the edges of those empires as well as those gaps in-between.
The book is part of a recent tradition in historical literature, which focuses on trade and cultural exchange rather than simply that of kings, queens and battles, and it is divided into four sections; Pre-history, Egypt, Greece, Rome and Beyond the Classical World.   
The author makes extensive use of Greek and Roman historians such as Herodotus, Ovid and Tacitus as well as philosophers such as Socrates and Plato, who apparently went to Egypt to sell oil  – well a man cannot live by words alone. 
The most influential culture in the classical world was probably that of the Greece.  Ironically there was never a Greek empire as such; the Macedonian empire of Alexander the Great only lasted a few years and its successor states, Ptolemaic Egypt and the Syrian-based Seleucid empire did not actually include Greece. What we refer to as the Greek world was a collection of city states, centred in the Aegean, covering much of the Mediterranean and beyond.  
Meanwhile classical Greece is viewed by those on the right as the blueprint for the superiority of the West. Although Athens was, indeed, the first place to promote a limited form of democracy it was a hierarchical society based on slavery, the subjugation of women and a chauvinistic attitude to those outside its parameters.  
Those outside the Greek and later Roman world were referred to as “barbarians”; one such group being the Scythians, a nomadic people who inhabited much of what is now Russia and Ukraine. The author devotes a chapter to the Ukrainian city of Olbia; a place where Greeks and Scythians interacted. Rees points to shared cultural similarities; for example Scythians following the Greek cult of Dionysus as well numerous examples of inter-marriage.  As a result there were no clear boundaries between the two groups.  Meanwhile cultural definitions are often a result of elite manipulation; whilst the interactions between groups of people often take place on geographic peripheries and amongst the lower orders of society.  In other words the most important boundary between people is that of class and not culture. 
Today we live in a world still dominated by empires but there are large swathes of the world no longer under their domination.  People’s China, Democratic Korea, Cuba and parts of South America, to name but a few.  We are told by our masters that these people are inherently different from us, comparable to modern day barbarians. Is this really the case?
I am told basketball is a very popular sport in Democratic Korea. Baseball is a popular sport in Cuba; both sports originated in the USA.  Likewise football is a popular sport in China, having begun in Britain.  It would seem ordinary people have more in common with each other than the elites who seek to divide us.  Maybe this has always been the case?  

The first civilisation

 by Ben Soton

Between Two Rivers a History of Mesopotamia and the birth of History by Moudhy Al-Rashid. Hardback 336 pp, Hachette, London 2025 Hbk £25, Pbk £12.99

When we look at history, we tend to view things in terms of BC or AD; or before or after the birth of Christ.  Sometimes we need reminding that there is more recorded history covering the years before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth than since.  To put this in perspective we are closer chronologically to the Roman conquest of Britain than Julius Caesar was to the earliest historical records. What we refer to as the “historical era” originated in Mesopotamia, the land between and around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers somewhere around the fourth millennia BC.  
It is to this period in ancient Mesopotamia that Moudhy Al-Rashid devotes her debut book Between Two Rivers a History of Mesopotamia and the birth of History.  The basis of her study is a discovery of a range of primary artefacts in 1920 which include; a clay drum, a mace head, a statue, school tablets, a brick and a cone. The author uses her in-depth knowledge combined with the study of the items to construct a period of what was probably the world’s first civilisation.
Much of the work is based on a study of cuneiform, probably the world’s first form of writing.  Cuneiform was used by the Sumerian. Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian empires.  Al-Rashid points out that writing was not invented by poets, authors, playwrights or even journalists. It was simply a means of recording grain transactions, inventories and rations.  In other words, without the need for bureaucrats to keep records there would be no Dickens, Shakespeare or for the that matter the New Worker. It is from these essentially mundane records that “history” emanates.   
What makes Mesopotamia special is that it was the world’s first region to develop agriculture. From agriculture came cities, trade, warfare and most important of all class society.  In early class society payment for work was given out in the form of rations rather than cash and a considerable amount of work was done by slaves. 
Although probably not a Marxist herself, Al-Rashid’s book confirms this view.  She goes on to point out that much of history is told from the point of view of those at the top of society with the rest of us often ignored.  
In her own words the author views the artefacts as a handshake with a long dead person from the past. Her knowledge of the very ancient world and its languages comes through in the book. Her work is well worth reading for anyone interested in the period that even the Romans would have considered as ancient history.          
          

Shaping the future from the past

by Ben Soton 

What is history for – Essays in honour of Professor John Foster: Manifesto Press, 2024, 98pp; Pbk: rrp £10.00

Someone of a more pedantic temperament might have asked the question, what is grammar for? as the publishers omitted to include a question mark in the title. But spending too much time on detail can detract from what is actually a serious question. Whether we like it or not we are all shaped by history; that of ourselves, our families, whole nations and humanity as a whole. Marxists, however, have always viewed history through the prism of class struggle.
The Manifesto Press publication is a series of essays paying tribute to John Foster.  Foster was for many years the International Secretary of the Communist Party of Britain as well as Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences at the University of the West of Scotland.  Most noted for work is Class Struggle in the Industrial Revolution (1974) as well as various articles the national question, labour history and urban development.  
The pamphlet consists of eleven essays on a range of subjects.  In the first essay Mary Davis essentially writes a tribute to Foster. She discusses how in the late 1970s and early 1980s a number of academics attempted to water down Marxism into a purely analytical tool rather than a guide to action; examples of whom included Foucault, Wright and Cohen.
Well worth reading is Hyper Imperialism Today by VJ Prashad; who both defends Lenin’s thesis of imperialism as the highest state of capitalism whilst espousing the new theory of Hyper Imperialism. He claims there is a hyper-imperialist bloc of states led by the USA, which include the European Union, Japan as well as outlying countries such as Australia.  Prashad claims that for the first time since the development of capitalism this bloc is being challenged by a group of rivals from the Global South. These states may not be entirely anti-capitalist but they are, to a greater extent, anti-Atlanticist. The only way the Hyper-Imperialist bloc can respond is through military aggression; evidence is increased military spending in the United States and Europe.  
Another article of interest is James Crossley’s essay, Religion and English Radical History which looks at the role played by religion in the Peasants Revolt of 1381.  Meanwhile Jonathan White writes about more recent events such as the strike wave of 2022 -23 and David Horsley discusses the role of Black communists in Britain. Some are written in a highly academic style whilst others are more accessible.  
The final article by Gavin Brewis, Intergenerational psychosocial trauma: violence, social murder and the ‘space between’, was one of the articles I really struggled to unpick.  The article is more of a discussion about negative language toward marginalised groups; such as “chavs” and for those north of the border “neds”.  In recent years right-wing governments have attempted to create a hostile environment towards certain groups; witness migrants and the disabled.  When considering the Starmer Government’s cuts to disabled benefits I am reminded of a quote from the late Eric Trevett, the former General Secretary of the New Communist Party: “you don’t need gas chambers to carry out genocide”.

Tales from a heroic age

by Ben Soton

Odyssey: Stephen Fry, Penguin London 2024, 416 pp, pbk rrp £10.99

Odyssey by Stephen Fry is the latest translation of Homer’s epic poem. The original, believed to have been written sometime in the eighth century BC, was probably written in an archaic form of Ancient Greek, probably Doric. Suffice to say there have been numerous translations of The Odyssey; some in poetic form others in prose.
The Odyssey has had an immense influence on Western literature. The Aeneid by the Roman Virgil has numerous similarities with The Odyssey; both stories originate in the Trojan War. James Joyce’s Ulysses (Joyce uses the Roman name for the hero Odysseus) is also based on it. In modern science fiction the famous words from Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker, “Luke I am your father”, has its origins in the meeting between Odysseus and his son, Telemachus, while the term “odyssey” is often synonymous with any epic journey.
Odyssey by Stephen Fry differs little from previous translations of Homer’s account of the king of Ithaca’s return from the Trojan war. His desire is to return to his wife Penelope, whom he has been parted from for twenty years and his son Telemachus, who was little more than a babe in arms when he left. Penelope is continually pestered by suitors who she manages to outwit who want to marry her and take the throne. Time is running out and few believe Odysseus to be alive. Meanwhile in his attempt to return home Odysseus, faces Cyclops, sea monsters and is continually shipwrecked.
Fry’s translation, which is written in prose format and reads more like a novel, differs slightly in that he makes passing reference to the Trojan prince Aeneas. Aeneas fled from Troy, put to the torch by the victorious Greeks, and his descendants eventually founded Rome.
Whilst Odyssey ends with the defeat of the suitors, other translations continue with further stories. For instance the E V Rieu translation of 1946 describes the brutal killing of the disloyal female slaves of his household who had sided with the suitors. Fry makes no mention of this, even in the prologue, making this translation more sympathetic to Odysseus.
The problem with the story is that so little is known about the original author, Homer. Some scholars even doubt his existence and attribute the work to a number of different writers. Perhaps Homer, assuming he existed, simply played an editorial role.
Nevertheless the Odyssey is still a timeless work of literature. It has inspired numerous translations, television series, feature films and will continue to arouse curiosity for many years to come. On that note Odyssey by Stephen Fry is well worth reading and will make a worthwhile addition to any bookshelf.

A not so pointless murder

 

by Ben Soton

We Solve Murders: Richard Osman, Penguin, London 2024, 432 pp, Hbk £22, Pbk £9.99

Richard Osman is best known as the co-presenter of the television gameshow Pointless; however in 2020 he branched out into thriller writing with the Thursday Murder Club series.  However, the series, based around a group of elderly characters approaching eighty, may for obvious reasons have a limited lifespan.  Building on the success of his first series Osman appears to be starting a new set of novels, the first being We Solve Murders.         
The book’s main characters are a retired Met detective Steve Wheeler, now living in the New Forest, and his bodyguard daughter-in-law Amy.  Steve lives in the fictional village of Axley, which has strong similarities with the actual village of East Boldre.  Its inhabitants are mostly affluent commuters and retirees and Steve spends much of his time solving minor mysteries, such as money missing from the till in a local shop and the odd missing cat.  The highlight of his week is the pub quiz.       
Amy’s world could not be more different.  Currently working as a body-guard for an international best-selling author, Rosie D’Antonio; she inhabits a world where the higher echelons of organised crime meet the super-rich.  Is there much difference?
These two very contrasting worlds are brought together after a series of murders and an attempt by the real culprit to either frame Amy or have her murdered.  Amy is forced to ask Steve for help.   
It’s an odyssey that takes Rosie, Steve and Amy across the world starting in South Carolina and ending at the pub quiz in Axley.  Steve eventually solves the murder, bringing the guilty parties to justice.  He meanwhile manages to make the transition from the world of a quiet New Forest village to an action-adventure role including private jets, shootings and possibly the opportunity of romance.   
The novel reads more like a complicated word puzzle than a novel and the murderer was the character I suspected. Its interjections about teenage influencers, which I still wonder what they had to do with the murder, do not really help.  The characters did not immediately spike the imagination in the same way as the Thursday Murder Club series.  Meanwhile Osman missed an opportunity to provide Amy with a sufficient back story, which he managed to do with Steve.  However characters sometimes take several novels to fully develop.  The story ends with the possibility of further books. Let’s hope they are better than the first.   

On the brink of war

by Ben Soton

Precipice: Robert Harris, Penguin, London 2024, 464 pp, Hbk £22:00;Pbk £9.99

In late Edwardian London there were twelve postal deliveries a day; I learnt this from reading Precipice, Robert Harris’ latest thriller. It focuses on the affair between the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, and the aristocratic socialite Venetia Stanley.  It also provides an insight on the belle époque of a ruling class heading for Armageddon.  
The relationship between “Squiffy” Asquith and Venetia is by no means a Donald Trump; Stormy Daniels affair.  It consists of little more than afternoon drives and the occasional touching of hands.  However the affair soon arouses suspicion when it is discovered that Asquith has been sharing sensitive government documents with Ms Stanley.  As a result the Security Services send Detective Sergeant Paul Deemer to investigate.  Deemer plays the role of the honest everyman obtaining a glimpse into a highly elite world and it eventually transpires that the motives of his superiors are far from honest.  
 Asquith is depicted as a man out of his depth, as well as being in a loveless marriage with his wife Margot.  As a result he seeks advice on matters of state from a twenty-seven-year-old socialite, with almost no knowledge of matters of state.  As his government stumbles from one crisis to another, Asquith faces numerous plots and squabbles from those around him.  The novel starts with the inability of the Asquith government to deal the reactionary Ulster Unionists who were blocking Home-Rule in Ireland; meanwhile as Europe drifts to war new problems emerge, putting the ‘Irish Question’ on the back burner.  
As Britain enters the European conflict, something that it had avoided for a century, new problems emerge.  The Government faces problems resulting from the shortage of munitions as well as the mess caused by Churchill’s disastrous Gallipoli campaign.  The leader of the last totally Liberal Government Asquith was forced to enter into a coalition with the Tories in 1915 and later replaced by Lloyd-George as Prime Minister in 1916. 
Meanwhile Precipice is as much a coming-of-age novel for Ms Stanley.  In Edwardian Britain it was seen as unusual for a woman to be unmarried at twenty-seven.  Although nothing sexual takes place between her and Asquith she soon comes to the conclusion that she is being used as a crux for his personal issues and failings as a politician; in other words a one-sided relationship.  It is often said that power is an aphrodisiac but in this book Asquith seems to lose what little power he had and he seems as a man reacting to events rather than shaping them.    
The author, Robert Harris, has long had a sympathy for elite politicians of the liberal or conservative kind. Notably the Roman Senator Cicero; whom he wrote a trilogy (Lustrum, Imperium and Dictator) about.  But Precipice shows the failings of liberalism as an ideology, least of all its inability to deal with crises...and that’s just for starters. 

Are you not entertained?

by Ben Soton

What did the Romans ever do for us? We remember the roads, the sanitation, law and order, and the monumental architecture that tourists still gape at to this day. But behind the facade of Greco-Roman civilisation there is a darker side – the legions, the crucifixions and the amphitheatres where prisoners were thrown to the lions for the amusement of the crowds and matched pairs fought, often to the death, in “games” that gave true meaning to a Roman holiday.
So what was Rome?  Was it simply a free trade zone covering an area from Scotland to Iraq; where most of its inhabitants toiled either as slaves, or at best plebs, whilst a few at the top lived a life of opulent luxury?  Or is Rome an idea based on honour that gives hope and freedom to its inhabitants provided it is properly run. This is the point espoused in Gladiator 11, Ridley Scott’s latest blockbuster.      
Gladiator II is set several years after the original film during the reign of Caracalla and Geta, two brothers who were joint emperors.  The opening scenes show the Roman conquest of Numidia; a major inaccuracy as the region in north Africa was taken during the Roman Republic, several hundred years before 211 AD, the date shown in the film.  The central character, played by Paul Mescal, is brought to Rome as a slave after heroically failing to defend hearth and home. There he becomes a key feature of Rome’s gladiator scene and is given the name Hanno. 
The film has many similarities with the first Gladiator (2000).  A number of the original cast make a return – most notably Derek Jacobi as Senator Gracchus and Connie Nielson as Lucilla.  The battle scenes involve extensive use of CGI and AI but are none the less highly realistic, if not historically accurate.  The scenes in the Colosseum point towards European and in particular Italian fascism originating in Classical Rome. And the overriding theme is very much the same; one man’s struggle to survive in the arena and attempts by better and honourable sections of the elite to remove a corrupt and degenerate emperor or emperors. 
Once again, we see Gracchus and Lucilla, who represent the better section of the ruling class, conspire against the dual emperors.  An addition to the film is the character of Macrinus, played by Denzel Washington.  He is a former slave, not from the elite, who wishes to usurp power for himself; although is this not what Gracchus and Lucilla are doing?  Meanwhile Hanno, who is no ordinary prisoner of war and has an interesting back story, becomes embroiled in this web of intrigue.  
The film promotes the notion that empires are great, provided they are run by the likes of Gracchus and Lucilla. Meanwhile the masses, be they Colosseum goers or gladiators are simply there to side with one or other section of the elite.  The recent US election comes to mind...

The other Cromwell’s story

by Ben Soton

What do we know about Henry VIII?  He had six wives; three called Catherine, two called Anne and one called Jane.  Less widely known is that he spent much of his reign in the company of men called Thomas.  Thomas Wolsey, who served as Lord Chancellor in the early part of his reign, Thomas Howard the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas More, who also served as Lord Chancellor as well as the less well-known Thomas Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton.  The BBC latest Sunday night drama, Wolf Hall – The Mirror and the Light is the story of Thomas Cromwell. 
Thomas Cromwell served as Henry VIII’s Chief Minister from 1534 to 1540; ultimately a moderniser with strong Protestant sympathies who oversaw England’s break with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries.  He played a role in modernising the English state; which saw an increased role for Parliament.  Cromwell’s origins were considerably humbler than those around him, which almost certainly played a part in his downfall.  
The Mirror and the Light is the second TV adaption of the novels of Hilary Mantel; in both adaptations Cromwell is played by Mark Rylance and Henry by Damian Lewis.  Both the book where Cromwell is the narrator, and the television series, portray Cromwell in a sympathetic light.  Rylance’s Cromwell has both humanity and toughness; on the one hand he shows genuine kindness to Princess Mary when it suits his interests and, in another scene, physically moves an opponent out of his way. 
The Mirror and the Light starts where the first series ended with the execution of Anne Boleyn and Henry’s marriage to Jane Seymour.  Both series show the intrigue that existed within the Tudor court.  Rival factions strive to push the King in their direction, whilst avoiding his wrath.  The most reactionary sections of the nobility oppose Henry’s break with Rome and look to Princess Mary, his daughter by Catherine of Aragon.  This faction gravitates around the De La Pole Family.  In episode one, Wreckage, Cromwell is able to bring Mary into line leaving the De La Pole family weakened.  This episode shows Cromwell gaining in self-confidence as he out-manoeuvres his opponents, whilst keeping the King onside.  Cromwell is seen taking advice from his long dead mentor, the late Cardinal Wolsey (played by Jonathan Pryce); who acts as his conscience and a sounding board for his thoughts.
If you think this sounds like a complex chess game you are not far from the truth and evidence suggests that Cromwell was influenced by Niccolo Machiavelli and his famous book on statecraft The Prince.  But Thomas Cromwell eventually fell afoul of his master.  In 1540 he was brought down by a rival faction around issues related to Henry’s marriage to the German princess, Anne of Cleves.  Although Thomas Cromwell came to a sticky end at the hand of the King the star of one of his in-laws was rising. A Welsh courtier in Henry’s court had married Thomas’ sister and, as was the custom of the day, assumed the name of his wife’s more noble family. One of his descendants become this country’s greatest moderniser – Oliver Cromwell – but that’s another story!