STEVEN ANDREW is moved beyond words by a historical account of mining in Britain made from the words of the miners themselves
Latest editorial
On Burnley Road: Class, Race and Politics in a Northern English Town
Salutary lessons to be learned from race riots in a ‘red wall’ Burnley
DECLINE: Abandoned factories symbolise Burnley's impoverishment in recent decades
CAILEAN MCBRIDE welcomes a refreshing and timely study of the way officialdom creates structures that exclude LGBT+ rights and humanity
The bard mourns the loss of comrades and troubadours, and looks for consolation with Black Country Jess
CHRIS MOSS relishes the painting and the life story of a self-taught working-class artist from Warrington
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a star-studded adaptation of Ibsen’s play that is devoid of believable humanity
GORDON PARSONS is fascinated by a unique dream journal collected by a Jewish journalist in Nazi Berlin
Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade, Parthenope, Where Dragons Live and Thunderbolts* reviewed by MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE
IN JUNE 2001, there was a sudden outburst of racial rioting in the old Lancashire town of Burnley, one with a long weaving tradition and home to a settled minority community of Asian Muslims, mainly from Bangladesh, Gujarat and Pakistan who had lived in the town in seeming amity with their neighbours. That was clearly not the case.
Mike Makin-White, a former member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, was at the time working in community relations for Burnley Council, helping to promote community cohesion and good race relations during a decade when the BNP won seats on the council.
In this book, after a short but useful historical introduction to the town, he provides an incisive step-by-step description and perceptive analysis of what lay behind those riots.
More from this author
JOHN GREEN recommends a German comedy that celebrates the old GDR values of solidarity, community and a society not dominated by consumerism
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
Mountains of research show that hardcore material harms children, yet there are still no simple measures in place
Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds
