MUP Author to present her book to the President of Ireland

Eva Gore-Booth

MUP author, Sonja Tiernan, will formally present her book Eva Gore-Booth: An Image of Such Politics to the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins at his official residence in Dublin, Áras an Uachtaráin.  

The first dedicated biography of Eva Gore-Booth was released by MUP on 22 May and will be presented to the President on Tuesday 5 June at a special event. This is one the highest honors an Irish author can receive. Photographs of the reception will be posted after the event.

Yilin Press to publish Chinese translation of Marxism and History

The Chinese translation of Marxism and History, Second Edition, by Stephen Rigby, is due to be published next month. 

Foreign translation rights have been bought by Yilin Press, Ltd, a Nanjing based publishing house.  Established in 1989, Yilin Press are one of the most renowned publishers of literature and social sciences in China. They've been praised for their high academic standards by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and work closely with UNESCO publishers. They have also recently earned the honour of National Model Publisher.  

We're very pleased that Yilin Press are publishing and distributing Marxism and History in China.

Mexico's most celebrated novelist dies at 83

The writer and polemicist Carlos Fuentes has died in hospital in Mexico City.  Fuentes published more than 60 works, including novels, short stories, essays and plays, in a career that spanned six decades.  El Gringo Viejo (The Old Gringo), written in 1985, was the first Mexican book to feature in the New York Times bestseller list, and was evetually made into a Hollywood film starring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda.  His fictionalised account of his love affair with the movie star Jean Seberg inspired Diana, O la Cazadora Solitaria (Diana: The Goddess Who Hunts Alone, 1994).

Aura, one of many novellas by Carlos Fuentes, was first published in 1965, and is well known for using an innovative narrative technique, using second person narration in the present and future tenses.

This edition is edited by Peter Standish, a Professor of Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, at East Carolina University.

The Narrative of Carlos Fuentes, by Steven Boldy, examines the full range of Carlos Fuentes’ art, from the critical realism of his early novels to his highly experimental novels of the late sixties, and to his novels from the eighties where national identities are playfully evoked and largely dismantled through intertextual games, migrations of people and ideas.

A Clockwork Orange celebrates 50th anniversary

A Clockwork Orange is 50 years old today! To celebrate this significant milestone, we're offering a special 25% discount off our very own A clockwork counterpoint, by Paul Phillips.


A clockwork counterpoint is the first book to examine the musical side of Anthony Burgess, an astonishingly prolific, underrated and talented composer, revealing how his lifelong involvement in music is an essential key toward understanding his life and work.

To take advantage of this celebratory offer, simply contact our distributors on +44 (0)1752 202301, or email your details to orders@nbninternational.com, quoting the discount code OTH284. This offer expires on 30th June 2012.

Photos from the launch of Timed Out

The launch of Timed Out, by Leon Wainwright took place on the 2nd May. It was hosted by Iniva at Rivington Place in London.

The launch included a panel discussion with Sonia Boyce and Paul Wood and chaired by Paul Goodwin.  An audio visual of the panel discussion will follow shortly.

Photo's courtesy of Iniva

4th May marks the anniversary of the 1926 British General Strike and the release of our ground-breaking new book on this fascinating subject

In recognition of today's anniversary, this week Manchester University Press releases the first book on the 1926 British General Strike volunteers.

A lark for the sake of their country by Rachelle Hope Saltzman is the first full-length work dedicated to the role of the upper and middle-class volunteers in the General Strike

A path-breaking title it tells the stories of the upper and middle-class ‘volunteers’ in the strike. With behaviour derived from their play traditions - the larks, rags, fancy dress parties, and treasure hunts that prevailed at universities and country houses - the volunteers transformed a potential workers’ revolution into a festive public display of Englishness. 

Saltzman recreates the cultural context for the volunteers’ actions to explore how volunteers, strikers, and the Government used the strike to define national identity; it also considers how and why scholars, novelists, playwrights, diarists, museum curators, local examine historians, and even a theme restaurant have continued to recycle the event.

Using the methodology and theory of folklore, social anthropology, literary criticism, and social history, this study presents a cultural ethnography of one of modern British history’s most significant events. From 1985-87, the author conducted correspondence and interviews with nearly 300 volunteers, strikers, and contemporary observers, research that is now impossible to replicate. Those materials, combined with archival documents and a survey of contemporary media along with novels, diaries, plays, memoirs, histories, and exhibitions, provided the basis for exploring the traditional expressive culture of the British upper classes.

This book will appeal to aficionados of British social and cultural history, folklore, and popular culture as well as to undergraduate and graduate classes in British studies, modern labour history, and social anthropology as well as those on collective memory, history making and identity. 

Author Rachelle Hope (Riki) Saltzman says,

‘This book tells the story of the volunteers of 1926. It pays particular attention to the ways in which the traditional play behavior of middle, upper-middle, and upper-class men and women influenced their actions—and how others interpreted those actions. While dismissed at the time and since as a joke, the volunteers’ efforts represented serious attempts to assert their right to define Englishness’. 

Find out more!

Photos from the launch of Political Corruption in Ireland 1922–2010

Coming soon, Eva Gore Booth

This ground-breaking book reveals the fascinating and pioneering life of Eva Gore-Booth

• The first dedicated biography of the Irish poet and radical political activist Eva Gore-Booth (1870-1926)

• A significant contribution to the history of Anglo-Irish politics; social justice campaigns; women’s suffrage, trade union movements and the establishment of the British Labour Party

•  Reveals Gore-Booth’s instrumental role in forcing Winston Churchill out of his Manchester constituency

• Provides a new insight into the early political career of Gore-Booth’s sister, the iconic Irish nationalist, Countess Markievicz

• Timely publication covering key issues nearing centenary commemorations including, the Dublin Lockout, World War One, the sinking of the Lusitania, the Easter Rising, first votes for women and the Irish War of Independence.  

Eva Gore-Booth’s life story is at last being told in this landmark book, Eva Gore-Booth: An Image of Such Politics. Gore-Booth was a prolific and vibrant writer who enjoyed a place within W.B. Yeats’ literary circle. She dramatically rejected her aristocratic heritage in the West of Ireland leaving her ancestral home of Lissadell House. She crossed class boundaries moving to the industrial quarters of smog bound Manchester where she lived and worked amongst the poorest classes.

The story of Gore-Booth’s life is captivating and provides new insights into key political issues of early twentieth century Ireland and Britain. This book explores Gore-Booth’s experiences of militant pacifism during the Great War; her campaign for the reprieve Roger Casement’s death sentence; her determination to organise the defeat of Winston Churchill and her unwavering struggle for Irish independence. Her pioneering work on behalf of those marginalised in society such as barmaids, circus performers, flower sellers and pit-brow lasses and her instrumental role in the fight for gender equality in the workplace is examined using meticulous research.

The author’s dedication to her subject is confirmed by an international peer reviewer for Manchester University Press who notes how –‘Tiernan’s historical research in various archives has been exemplary, her access to the papers of Eva Gore-Booth and her selection of material and her interpretation, has rendered a narrative of great originality and interest. It really engages the reader in the life of Eva Gore-Booth, capturing the intensity and excitement of her life and the broader historical period.’

This book presents the reader with a life story, heretofore largely overlooked, of a remarkable woman, who was a key figure during several major periods and events in Anglo-Irish cultural and political history.  Renowned academic, Professor Maria Luddy, states that ‘this book illuminates the fascinating life of Eva Gore-Booth. Historian Sonja Tiernan has written an exciting and vibrant life of this extraordinary woman, at once an intrepid feminist, pacifist and advocate for social justice.’

Author Sonja Tiernan says, 

‘the story of Eva Gore-Booth’s revolutionary life shows a person devoted to the ideal of a free and independent Ireland and a woman with a deep sense of how class and gender equality can transform lives and legislation. Her campaigns to achieve fundamental change in these areas were often at odds with the ideals of mainstream organisations and were almost always ahead of public opinion. In some cases her behaviour was deemed to be “unlawful” by authorities but this only served to make her more determined.’

Six Key Dates in the life of Eva Gore-Booth  

1879: Famine re-visits the West of Ireland and Gore-Booth witnesses the devastation inflicted on tenant farmers on her family’s land in Sligo. 

1908: In opposition to the Liberal party’s proposed Licensing Bill Gore-Booth orchestrates the defeat of Winston Churchill at a Manchester by-election. Her campaign to protect the employment of barmaids is supported in the House of Commons.    

1914: During World War One Gore-Booth becomes an active member of the No Conscription Fellowship supporting conscientious objectors. She writes pamphlets condemning the war and documents accounts of military tribunals.  

1916: Gore-Booth is deeply affected by the Easter Rising, her friend Frances Sheehy Skeffington is murdered and her mentor, James Connolly executed. Her sister, Markievicz is sentenced to death for her part in the rebellion. Gore-Booth leads a high profile campaign for the reprieve of Roger Casement’s death sentence securing an audience with King George V.  

1918: Women over the age of 30 receive the vote in general elections for the first time. Gore-Booth’s sister, Constance Markievicz, is the only woman elected though she refuses to take her seat in line with nationalist policies.    

1926:  Eva Gore-Booth dies and is buried at St. John’s Churchyard, Hampstead. Her life-long partner Esther Roper died 12 years later and they are buried together under a Celtic cross adorned with a fragment of Sappho’s poetry. 

About the author

Sonja Tiernan is a Lecturer in Modern History at Liverpool Hope University

Woman's Hour investigates Modern Motherhood

Manchester University Press author, Angela Davis, was today one of Jenni Murrays guests on BBC Radio 4's Woman’s Hour.

Much of the lively discussion surrounding the anniversary of ‘Fifty Years of Motherhood Manuals’ centred around Angela’s findings taken from her book ‘Modern motherhood’, published last week.

Find out more about Modern motherhood.

Listen Jenni Murray’s interview with Angela Davis on iPlayer.

Have you got the stomach for fighting?

Have you started a new diet that you’re struggling to stick to? Or, perhaps you’ve given up a foodie vice (chocolate is always the big one at Manchester University Press!) for lent.

As a nation, historically, we’ve more often faced the problem of food deficit rather than a food surplus. This has been particularly true in times of war. This week sees the publication of the latest book in our series, Cultural History of Modern War. The Stomach for fighting by Rachel Duffett is all about diet, nutrition and food supplies in the First World War. Food is central to morale and physical performance, but also fundamental to emotional and social identities. While the British army provided more food than many soldiers ate as civilians, calories do not address the central complexity of eating, which is rarely about nutrition alone and comes freighted with emotions that have little to do with psychological need. The stomach for fighting is brilliantly written and gives an insight into the hardships facing soldiers at the front as well as the deprivations at home.