OTD in 1943, a pacifist settlement was founded on Frating Hill Farm. In this piece from the archives, Ken Worpole examines the lives of those who contributed to the project - including the future cabinet minister Shirley Williams.

New podcast alert! Iain Sinclair, Susie Thomas and Ken Worpole, discussing Alexander Baron's *The Lowlife*. Listen here: www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/podcasts-vid...

Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

How Paris beat the car www.ft.com/content/882e...

The man who turns the music off at the end of the clip is a legend of the East End over the past half-century: the artist and youth worker Dan Jones, whom I’ve also interviewed. More info about Dan and his much-loved paintings here courtesy of The Gentle Author: spitalfieldslife.com/2017/06/14/d...

TUNDE’S FILM (1973) really should be better known — it’s a gritty, authentic portrayal of East End life in the early ’70s created by 18-year-old actor, writer and co-director Tunde Ikoli. There’s much to love about it, not least this scene showing Tunde’s friends’ glorious dancing to Prince Buster!

If Starmer wants a reset - and not yet another U-turn when the parliamentary party balks at a policy - here is his chance.

A continuing scandal. And as some of the symposium participants said, we need legislation now, but Labour's immigration policies are hardening.

A brilliant essay by @sammyfeldblum.bsky.social on what the unravelling of Thames Water tells us about privatisation, market failure and the place and politics of water in the climate crisis

John Berger, one of Europe’s most influential post-war writers and intellectuals, was born 100 years ago on 5 November 1926 in Stoke Newington, and happily the subject of many planned commemorative events in the UK and across Europe this year.

My letter in @thetimes.com today: what is the economy for? #PublicHealth #Wellbeing #Environment #Inequality

“The poet does not use poetry, but is at the service of poetry. To use it is to misuse it.” - Denise Levertov I love the images in this poem. Also something clever about the repetition and effect of the line breaks in the final stanza #poetry #poemoftheday

Books of 2025: The Meaning of Growth - Richard Douglas A Climate of Truth - Mike Berners-Lee Climate Injustice - Friederike Otto Brightening from the East - Ken Worpole Homework - Geoff Dyer Books of the half-decade : Late Soviet Britain - Abby Innes Twilight of Democracy - Anne Applebaum

Including my personal pick, from the great @kgeorgew.bsky.social

'It was in July, 1922, a hot day, I bought a Bartholomew map of Essex, inch to the mile, coloured for elevation. The blue creeks, the wide expanses of green for marsh, all delighted me.' 'I knew that extraordinary sensation of being where I wanted to be...socketted in the universe.' Essex Marshes

Will Hutton “When the story of the 2024 - 29(?) Parliament is told one of the strangest chapters will be the refusal to close down foreign donations to British political parties”. What on earth do Labour MPs think their ministers are doing here? observer.co.uk/news/politic...

Surprised and delighted to be alongside Philip Hoare as writing one of the New Statesman’s ‘Books of the Year 2025’, chosen by Geoff Dyer. Dyer is kind and generous to us both, characterising Hoare’s writing as ‘ecstatic, kaleidoscopic and visionary’, and mine as consistently thoughtful and moving.’

Jeremy Seabrook died one year ago today aged 85. One of the most original & pioneering voices for social justice, human rights & dignity in post-war Britain. He asked: “Why is it that the rich must become immeasurably more rich before the poor can become even fractionally less poor?”

Damilola Taylor: The fight to protect young lives www.bbc.com/news/article... And the full-frame image from his memorial on the Peckham Estate #DamilolaTaylor

My new book, all about how, in the 1970s and 80s, the good architects and planners of the Peterborough Development Corporation tried to create pedestrian-friendly places to live. Available here: theradburnidea.bigcartel.com/product/the-...

‘Designing social housing for later life is too often reduced to a simple provision of service. Appleby Blue, however, is a provision of pure delight . . . high-quality spaces that are generous and thoughtful, blending function and community . . .’ www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

I'm too inactive here, but just to say I have an exhibition opening this weekend, plus events etc coming up... If you are in an Essex direction pls come by! firstsite.uk/event/into-t...

We should all be deeply grateful for Emma Warren’s timely cultural history of the youth club (@faberbooks.bsky.social), writes social historian and former youth worker Ken Worpole (@kgeorgew.bsky.social) www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/09/up-t...

Please join us at Swedenborg House on Thursday 25 September 7pm-9pm (doors open 6.30pm) for 'BUILDING A WINDMILL | KEN WORPOLE & MELISSA BENN IN CONVERSATION.' FREE. For more information please visit: www.swedenborg.org.uk/events/build... @kgeorgew.bsky.social @littletollerbooks.bsky.social

Just published, two inspiring collection of essays on the prospects for rural Britain in the future. Vol 1: Land, food & farming. Vol 2: Housing, planning & construction. From Assemble, Little Toller Books and the inestimable Common Ground. Fabulous photos by Kaye Song, designed by Polytechnic.

Child and art, Child Welfare, Netherlands Stamps, 1964. Designed by Ootje Oxenaar designreviewed.com/artefacts/ch...

Thanks to @thetcpa.bsky.social for commissioning this article for the latest edition of their Journal. Hope you enjoy the read. 😊 www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Why Unicef almost always concludes that Dutch children are the happiest in the world. Me on what makes a good childhood, based partly on having grown up in the Netherlands @financialtimes.com on.ft.com/45o0cjh

Looking forward to seeing old friends at the wonderful Wivenhoe Bookshop on Friday, 5 September, 2025 at 7pm. I'll be talking about rural socialism, artists's colonies, post-industrial landscapes, and eco- futurism, all part of the county's febrile 20th century history.

This documentary history of Frating Hall Farm in Essex, a unique pacifist community - taped interviews, photographs, letters, diaries - has now been given its own archive at Essex Record Office. 'What Worpole's account attests to is the paradise of making paradise...' Olivia Laing, TLS, 2021

Interesting new publication from @littletollerbooks.bsky.social arrived today. First in a series. You can find out more on their website 👍

☀️☀️ MORE SUMMER PICKS ☀️☀️ lrb.me/e63 David’s pick of summer treats, ft. new novels from Gary Shteyngart & Nicola Barker, an ecofictional fable from Sarah Hall, a final collection of essays from the much-mourned Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and a pair of primers on environmental futures from Little Toller

'No one knows where I am and that's the way I like it.' Congratulations to Jeff Young & Little Toller Books for winning the TLS Ackerley Prize last night for Wild Twin, the definitive British post-Kerouac road trip and dream diary.

Congratulations to Jeff Young, winner of this year’s TLS Ackerley Prize for his highly original and exhilaratingly written memoir ‘Wild Twin’, published by @littletollerbooks.bsky.social‬

"As Worpole so beautifully puts it, ‘we are always living in different periods simultaneously; time is malleable within our inner selves. To be wholly modern would be to have no inner life at all." Lovely @luketurner.bsky.social review of the new Ken Worpole www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/04/ken-...

“Landscape is a combination of the human world and the natural world and therefore people are very important in it” hard recommend for the great Ken Worpole on the @oldweirdalbion.bsky.social podcast… open.substack.com/pub/uncannyl...

Our music features in this fascinating podcast from writers Justin Hopper and Ken Worpole. A wonderful conversation on notions of landscape and Essex (subjects very close to our hearts) give it a listen. XX @claypipemusic.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/uncannyl...

Published in 1987, this overlooked London-Irish novel is marked by a Beckett-like mixture of comedy and tragedy. Written by publican & novelist, Jerry O' Neill, once of The Duke of Wellington in Balls Pond Road, two Irish labourers set themselves 24 hours to raise funds to bury their friend.

Nothing more serendipitous than ordering a recommended book that sounds quite interesting but probably published years ago. Then finding that it’s unputdownable, that it addresses much of your current thinking - and THEN, that it’s actually published today @littletollerbooks.bsky.social #Landscape

Newly published by @littletollerbooks.bsky.social, Book of the Month is Ken Worpole's 'Brightening From the East’, which tells stories of arcadian dreams among the shabby plotlands of eastern England. Read an extract on The Peculiar People of Essex: www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/04/ken-...

BOOK OF THE MONTH: @luketurner.bsky.social‬ reviews Ken Worpole’s ‘Brightening from the East’ (@littletollerbooks.bsky.social), finding the richness of humanity brought to life in its pages www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/04/ken-...

A big thank you to Ken Worpole and Tim Burrows for a fantastic evening of conversation, at #Westcliff Library last Thursday. A truly fascinating and entertaining discussion! Thank you also to the lovely audience who enjoyed Ken’s insights into #Essex and #Southend through the years.

A treat to hear the great Ken Worpole speak last night about his new book, Brightening from the East. Landscape, memory, and nonconformity on the Essex coast.

Reading mood has returned, with #bookreviews on the way. Next up are Brightening from the East by Ken Worpole, which is looking very intriguing, & We Came by Sea by Horatio Clare. Many thanks to Gracie at @littletollerbooks.bsky.social for allowing me to review these. #booksky #writingcommunity

Ken Worpole talking about his essay on John Berger from his latest book Brightening from the East. With the brilliant Gareth Evans at a packed @hackney-hist-fest.bsky.social

What children's games around the world can teach us

Another kind addition from Andrew Whitehead to my collection of 20th century 'experiments in living' (J.S.Mill) in Essex by all manner of peoples. Do read 'No Matter How Many Skies Have Fallen: back to the land in wartime Britain', beautifully published by Little Toller in 2021, now reprinted.

Terrific evening last night at the London Review Bookshop with Susie Thomas & Iain Sinclair discussing the new Faber edition of Alexander Baron's classic novel, 'The Lowlife'. Amazing how the 're-forgotten' novelist (in Sinclair's apt term) is enjoying a spectacular revival.

Can art remind us of what we have in common? Ken Worpole explores two exhibitions that give us a glimpse of daily life around the world – highlighting how children build community through play – while @selmadabbagh.bsky.social talks to us about the power of Palestinian literature