I have been reminding myself of the life and work of Rebecca West, one of the greatest journalists and novelists of the mid 20th century, after meeting the writer, academic and editor Joanna Labon, at a friend’s house last night. Labon is an active member of the Rebecca West society, formed in 2003, and is… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Writings
Remembering Labour’s roots
Read Melissa Benn’s latest article, and readers’ comments, in today’s Guardian Comment is Free Early Saturday afternoon in bracing February sunshine and a crowd is gathering outside Bow station in London’s East End. We are about to embark on a walk round the landmarks in the East End life of George Lansbury (1859-1940), part of… Continue Reading
Oppose privatisation of the Royal Mail……
Please sign up to the statement put out by Compass, opposing government plans to privatise the Post Office. As Compass, the Democratic Left campaigning organisation, says, ‘given the current economic situation it doesn’t make any sense that the Government are nationalising the banks on the one-hand, but seeking to privatise Royal Mail and the Post… Continue Reading
Giving something back
Read my latest Public Finance opinion piece The tone was positively Churchillian: ‘Britain can beat this… just like we’ve beaten everything else this world has thrown at us. We’ll win by pulling together, not by facing the storm alone.’ But such stirring language came not from beleaguered national leaders at a world summit but from… Continue Reading
Missing in ( Domestic) Action, Part Two.
My friend K is burning up with righteous indignation. ‘Why aren’t women rioting in the streets? Where is the anger? None of my male friends are facing this problem.’ Now in her mid twenties, K has landed a junior job in a top company in her field. The hours are already killing; some of her… Continue Reading
Net Etiquette
Since I started occasionally posting pieces on the Guardian’s Comment is Free site, I’ve had my first taste of real net malice. My current favourite remains ‘Melissa Benn. Pig Ignorant and Stupid With It.’ the headline of quite the most extraordinarily insulting blog, posted by The Devil’s Kitchen, in response to an article I wrote… Continue Reading
On tonight………….
Watch a discussion of Melissa Benn’s latest novel ‘One of Us’ – with Alastair Campbell among others – on Richard and Judy at 6pm on Watch! TV and straight after that, an interview with Melissa on Mariella Fostrup’s The Books Programme, starting at 7pm on SKY ARTS………. Continue Reading
Missing in (Domestic) Action
There was something important missing from Sabine Durrant’s The Chore Wars, an otherwise interesting double page feature in yesterday’s Guardian about the degree to which mothers are still left to carry the domestic can. And that was any reference to any sort of feminist analysis. After all, there is a long, troubled, truculent, fascinating backstory… Continue Reading
The public lives of private couples
Writing about his and Barack Obama’s favourite book Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals in his blog today – http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog.php – Alastair Campbell makes the important point that great leaders like Abraham Lincoln would never have survived the 24/7 rolling news culture and the intense public scrutiny of political life at the top. Lincoln and his… Continue Reading
Richard and Judy Book Club
‘One of Us’ has been selected by Richard and Judy as their book choice for February. Their reviews plus those of Amanda Ross, Joanne Frogatt and Sam West can be read in the Online Edition of the Daily Mail. Continue Reading
Latest writing
THE CRISIS OF THE MERITOCRACY
The crisis of the meritocracy: Britain’s transition to mass education since the Second World War PETER MANDLER, 2020 Oxford: Oxford University Press 361pp, hardback, £25, ISBN 9780198840145 Cambridge historian Peter Mandler has a fundamentally optimistic story to tell about the growth of universal education in Britain over the last seventy years and one can sense… Continue reading…
Latest news & events
A Cold War Tragedy
Melissa will be in conversation with Anne Sebba about her new book, ‘Ethel Rosenberg – A Cold War Tragedy.’ Weds 15th September 2021, 5-6pm, in the Robert Graves Tent at the Wimbledon Book Festival. More information here. Continue reading…
