Renegade

Reviews / Votes

The first detailed history of black power in Britain . . . Bunce and Paul Field have published a political biography of Darcus Howe - one of the most significant black activists in Britain - using him as a framework for a history of the black power movement in Britain. -- Mark Brown * The Guardian * One of the most exciting books on the shelves at the moment * Left Futures * Darcus Howe has been a towering figure,a powerful voice and an indominatable spirit for nearly half a century. His life embraces the history and critical importance of the struggle for justice and equality before the law. The lessons so graphically described in this book should not be forgotten by anyone lest we be condemned to relive them. -- Michael Mansfield, Professor of Law at City University and Visiting Professor of Law at Birkbeck London, UK This book is a an invaluable contribution to a vital task: uncovering the history of black activism in Britain and its relationship to global trends. The authors place the meaning and impact of Black Power, so often caricatured, in a richly chronicled context. In the spirit of CLR James, a figure who rightly presides over the book, as he did over the life of its subject, they focus on grass-roots creativity, on the interventions of people on the margins. In so doing, they bring to life a series of dramatic struggles, including the Black Power revolt in Trinidad, the persecution of the Mangrove restaurant in Notting Hill and the ground-breaking resistance to it, the New Cross fire and the Brixton riots of 1981. The book is a powerful reminder of much of our recent history, a history in danger of being forgotten or filed away under glib rubrics -- Mike Marqusee, author of 'Redemption Song: Muhammed Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties' This biography of Darcus Howe is undoubtedly a labour of love. Robin Bunce and Paul Field have made a creditable attempt to chart postwar black activism though one man's life. And there can be no other person more appropriate to build the story around - because Darcus Howe is one of the standout activists and public intellectuals of his generation ... for many of us, he will always be that man in the dock at the Mangrove trail, standing up to an institutioanlly racist state - and standing up for us all. This meticulous biography sets out the facts about a life and an era that should be far more widely known. -- Diane Abbott MP * The New Statesman * Political biographies are to be treasured and those of revolutionary activists the more so. [...] Unknown to me then were the personal history and the strands of influence that had been synthesised into so extraordinary a creative political life. It is this rich exploration that I embark on in each rereading [...] This book delivers an understanding of how those enduring brilliant flashes that lit up the possibilities of resisting and winning in truth were achieved. This is the book I read. And share. -- Gareth Peirce, British solicitor and human rights activist