A passionate and very funny memoir of 25 years of political activism - Ben Elton meets John O'Farrell's THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER Brief Description 'Telling someone from Swanley about the tedium of your small town is like saying to Nelson Mandela "I've had hassle from the old Bill myself, so I know how you fell mate"'. Mark Steel was born in suburbia and raised by working class parents, so naturally he became an Angry Young Man. Punished by his headmaster for eating a banana in public, he decided to commit his life to eradicating injustice. More Citizen Smith than Che Guevara he joined the Socialist Workers Party only to discover that it had no workers and wasn't much of a party. In his attempts, in the late 70s, to persuade his pub mates of the political validity of non-sexist attitudes, he was mostly called a poof. And then, innocently wandering into the heat of battle during the Brixton riots in 1981, he realised that his first experience of police violence was as life-changing as losing your virginity or your first curry. From his involvement in the Anti Nazi League in 1979, through to the steelworkers and Miners strikes, the Poll Tax march, the Liverpool Dockers strike to campaigning as a candidate in the Greater London Assembly elections, Mark Steel has been in the thick of every major left wing cause over the last 25 years. With passion, humour and a seriousness of purpose underlying his self-deprecation, REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL champions, not party politics, but the politics of human dignity, cheerfulness and a good laugh in all walks of life.

Reasons to Be Cheerful

Steel, Mark

Scribner

The memoirs of 25 years of political activism, albeit minor and mostly unsuccessful! Deciding to dedicated his life to eradicating injustice Mark Steel has: tried to persuade his mates to change their sexist attitudes - only to be called a poof; innocently wandered into the heat of battle during the Brixton riots in 1981 - to be wrongfully arrested for stealing shoes; hidden striking steel workers to defeat Thatcher's union laws; and in the GLA elections of May 2000 he received 1823 votes for the London Socialist Alliance.

Biographies & Memoirs

If real life can be funny, history should be doubly so. For Mark Steel, the French Revolution was one of the most inspirational moments in human history - a moment when ordinary people changed the world and became extraordinary. Here he strips away the layers of prejudice and preconception to be found in some historians' portraits of the revolutionaries - like Robespierre, Danton, de Sade, Tom Paine, Marat - to get to the people behind the stereotypes and the events behind the myths. This is a humorous and deadly serious account of the French Revolution: what happened, why, and how it could have happened to you. It's a book for anyone who's ever wanted to know what happened behind the storming of the Bastille and the guillotine, when a nation decided that things could only get better.

Vive LA Revolution

History

World

Gardners Books

What's Going On?

Simon Schuster(uk)

“Thank goodness . . . for Mark Steel. Engagingly lighthearted while clearly thorough, the author has taken the events of the French Revolution and given them a human face, as well as neatly poking fun at the over-pomposity with which our recent historians have dealt with the period.”—The Observer “With Vive La Revolution [Steel] examines the raw material of 1789, not so much in search of laughs as in an attempt to reclaim the first popular revolution from the dry historians.”—Scotsman “A cross between a history of the French Revolution and a spirited defense of the ideals that inspired it.”—The Independent “Steel expertly guides the reader through the philosophies, protagonists, failures and serious legacy of the events of 1789.”—Guardian Vive la Revolution is an uproariously serious work of history. Brilliantly funny and insightful, it puts individual people back at the center of the story of the French Revolution, telling this remarkable story as it has never been told before.
 For the Haymarket edition, Steel has added a new preface for North American readers and revised the book to address parallel themes in US history.

Vive la Revolution: A Stand-up History of the French Revolution

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Haymarket Books

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