Where Earwigs Dare: Matt Harvey’s whimsical poetry
This slim volume of Matt Harvey’s whimsical poetry – along with a small amount of prose and some cartoons – more than makes up in quality for the absence of quantity. … Read the full post »
Books
Read my reviews of books, and assorted matters – such as why I love printed books.
Vince Cable: Free Radical – what the memoirs say about the man
Features the man who said he had invented an invisible battleship which was stolen by the Ministry of Defence and moored in the Thames outside Parliament. … Read the full post »
The Filter Bubble: what the internet is hiding from you
It is a tribute to the excellence of Eli Pariser’s book, The Filter Bubble, that even now, six years on from its publication, a volume about the latest technology trends still reads as up-to-date and relevant. … Read the full post »
Gurkha: The true story of a campaign for justice by Peter Carroll
The Gurkha Justice campaign, seeking to give those who had served in the British army the right to settle in Britain afterwards, is a classic and heartwarming story. … Read the full post »
Writing on the wall: Social media – the first 2,000 years by Tom Standage
Tom Standage’s book, Writing on the wall: Social media – the first 2,000 years, has at its heart one good magazine-length article. … Read the full post »
Hopes and Fears: Trump, Clinton, the voters and the future by Michael Ashcroft
Michael Ashcroft’s latest collection of focus groups and polling around a specific election, Hopes and Fears: Trump, Clinton, the voters and the future looks at the 2016 US Presidential election . … Read the full post »
Master of the Senate: available in a brilliant audio version
It’s hardly breaking or surprising news to say that Robert Caro’s Master of the Senate, a volume of biography covering Lyndon Johnson’s time as Majority Leader of the US Senate, is as brilliant and enjoyable as it is long. But… … Read the full post »
The best digital campaigns don’t have to start from scratch
Daniel Kreiss’s Taking our country back looks at how Democrats first learned how to build digitally savvy election campaigns from scratch and then – crucially – learned how to institutionalise the technology and data. … Read the full post »
The Big Blue Machine: lessons from Canadian politics
J. Patrick Boyer’s history of the group at the heart of the Canadian Progressive Conservative Party’s campaigning for many years, The Big Blue Machine, is one of those books whose existence is more valuable than a reading of it. … Read the full post »
Who Decides? Paul Tyler’s book is well worth a read
Who Decides? by Paul Tyler is like an excellent after dinner speaker – not too long, with plenty of laughs and a bit of knowledge imparted. … Read the full post »