Against miserabilism: writings 1968-1992 - one

"Socialists are people too. Their lives are not all about 'politics'. Indeed the strength of Widgery's writings is to show how it is only the lived experience of people's lives that makes their politics real.

There are only a handful of revolutionary socialists who have ever been able to write convincingly about popular music, about suffering and dying - and indeed self-critically about the successes and failures of the socialist movement itself.

It is astonishing to read pieces written 30/40 years ago that are so prescient.

This collection is a living memorial to and by one of the finest writers and critics ever produced by the revolutionary left." - Stuart Weir, former editor of the New Statesman (1987-91); founder of the democratic movement Charter 88