Repeater’s Favourite Reads in 2020
As the year draws to a close, Team Repeater consider the state of their bookshelves and survey the year through their favourite reads.
“All the world is a very narrow bridge” — A correction, an apology, a reflection on irony
I’m not usually one for epigraphs. But I couldn’t resist adding one in the conclusion to my book Strange Hate: Antisemitism, Racism and the Limits of Diversity: “All the world is a very narrow bridge, and the most important thing is
“Communist Realism”, by Mark Fisher
Today marks nine years since the publication of Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher, a concept and work that he would apply and build upon in his analysis of culture and politics thereafter. Summed up briefly as "both a belief and
HALLOWEEN FLASH SALE! 50% off selected titles
To celebrate the haunting season we are offering 50% off our selected titles for the next 48 hours. What a better way to get into the Halloween spirit than reading about pessimism in Western philosophy (Infinite Resignation) or discovering the
The Forgotten Fathers — An Extract from Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black Woman to her European Son
October marks the Black History Month in the UK, and in its honor we selected an extract from Decolonial Daughter: Letters from a Black Woman to her European Son by Lesley-Ann Brown. In this extract, the author talks about her
Destination Docklands: The Story Of Jean-Michel Jarre’s 1988 London Spectacle
On October 10th thirty years ago, London witnessed one of the most remarkable and intriguing cultural events of its modern history. A concert which used massive buildings as a stage-set, relentless fireworks that could be seen across the city, an
Altered Grammar: Re-reading Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four in the Time of Trump
Darren Ambrose, editor of k-punk: The Collected and Unpublished Writings of Mark Fisher (2004-2016), on Orwell, through Pynchon, in the age of Trump. There is a terrifying moment in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four just after Winston and Julia have spent their final stolen
“Football from Below” — An extract from 1966 and Not All That
In this edited extract from 1966 and Not All That, Sanaa Qureshi discusses the relationship between football and nationalism, and whether football can be used subversively to achieve social justice. 1966 and Not All That (paperback + free ebook and free shipping
Football’s Coming “Home”—David Stubbs on Euro ’96, Three Lions and 90’s football lads
This is an edited extract from David Stubb's 1996 & the End of History- available here and currently just £4.50 including UK postage in our half price World Cup sale.
1995 may have been the year that Britpop burst through, but 1996 was the year in which it loomed largest and was most overbearing, Oasis in particular, despite not releasing an album that year. 1996 was still a year of Conservative g overnment, but so commanding was Tony Blair’s lead in the polls it was clear he was Prime Minister elect. It was possible, in 1996, for him to bask in the unspoiled glow of his triumph in bringing the long Tory nightmare to an end, untarnished by the many compromised decisions he would make almost immediately on taking office in 1997, beginning by accepting a £1 million donation from Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, only months later to grant exemption to the motor racing organisation from a general ban on cigarette advertising. All of that was to come; in 1996, he was still practically an honorary Oasis band member.
1996 was also the year of Euro ’96, in which English footballing hopes were bound up with the worlds of both comedy and music. It wasn’t just Baddiel and Skinner’s collaboration with The Lightning Seeds, “Three Lions”, but the sanguine, laddish, retrograde mood engendered by Britpop and Loaded. It wasn’t just football that was coming home, but the general sense that after the dark Seventies and the fragmented Eighties, Britain (led by England, of course) had rediscovered its mojo, the spring in its step, the spirit of Hurst and McCartney, the white heat of a bygone era.
The World Cup, nationalism, and authentocracy — an extract from Games Without Frontiers
In this edited extract from Games Without Frontiers, Joe Kennedy analyses the relationship between the World Cup, politics, nationalism and authentocracy. Games Without Frontiers (paperback + free ebook and free shipping to the UK) is currently half price as part of our World Cup