A Trumpet of Sedition achieved two notable milestones. The first was reaching 500 articles on the website. The second and most prominent is having 10,000 hits in a calendar month for the first time. The last few months have seen me do a lot of research for numerous projects and book reviews. My ultimate goal is to reduce the hours of my full-time job and concentrate more on writing and research.
I am way behind on several book projects, and the number of
books I need to review grows by the second. To someone reading the blog without
knowing me, it may seem my choice of books is random, to say the least. So, I will
explain my reasoning. The website is divided up into areas of interest to me.
So when a published book falls into my interest, I review it.
Some areas of interest are bigger than others. For instance, the 17th-century
English Revolution still plays a major role in the life of the website. There
is a spontaneous aspect to my writing as well. The next book review will be of
Mark Olden’s Murder In Notting Hill.
A neighbour had left a pile of books for anyone to take, and
this fascinating book was in the pile. In the early days of the website, I received
books from publishers to review. Although this has dried up considerably, I still
get a few, so I am obliged to review them. The only drawback is that some fall out of my interest or expertise. The next two reviews will be Michael
Braddick’s biography of Christopher Hill. Secondly, John Rees kindly sent me a
copy of his new book, The Fiery Spirits, the sequel to his previous
work, The Leveller Revolution, also published by Verso.
Recent Books
1.
The Fiery Spirits John Rees Verso
2.
Christopher Hill-The Life of a Radical
Historian-Michael Braddick-Verso
3.
John Adams and the Fear of American
Oligarchy-Luke Mayville-Princeton
4.
Bound For Glory-Woody Guthrie-Penguin
5.
Red Africa-Kevin Okoth Verso
6.
Raising the Red Flag-T Collins-Haymarket
7.
The Nazi Mind-Laurence Rees-Penguin Viking
8.
Son Of the Century-Antonio Scurati
The LRB Podcast-On Vigdis Hjorth•Wednesday, February 5, 2025
shows.acast.com/londonreviewpodcasts/episodes/on-Vigdis-Hjorth
Book Launch: Christopher Hill: The Life of a Radical
Historian by Michael Braddick-
Housemans 5 Caledonian Rd, London N1 9DX | shop@housmans.com
020 7837 4473
John Rees book launch events- On 10 March, I’ll be on
BBCR4’s Start the Week. In April, there’ll be a central London launch. On 10
May, I’ll be talking about ‘Radical MPs and the Long Parliament’ in Parliament
itself! On 22 May there’s a launch at Goldsmiths, organised jointly by the
History and Media Studies Departments. On 29 May, I’ll record an episode of the
excellent World Turned Upside Down podcast. On 4 June I’ll be speaking in the
Cromwell Museum’s
Mussolini: Son of the Century-This new Sky Original drama
series chronicles Benito Mussolini’s rise to power based on the above book.
