Chairman Mao remains a polarizing historical figure and key communist thinker alongside Marx and Lenin. The ‘Little Red Book’ is a widely influential text that shaped leftist movements globally, emphasizing the importance of the masses in history. Despite Mao’s controversial legacy, the book’s simple yet profound ideas continue to provoke thought and discussion.
Jim ‘Shaft’ Ryan is a famous house music DJ from Birmingham who along with his brothers, Mick and Dermot, and their mate Lee, responsible for the seminary U.K. and global nightclub brands, Miss Moneypennys and Chuff Chuff. Jim is also my mate. I knew that Jim had trained as a…
View More Review: We May Win We May Lose – by Jim ‘Shaft’ Ryan
Thomas Paine is an important writer at an important time that bequeaths us in his ‘Rights of Man’ a fundamental shakeup of what our democratic rights as citizens should be, drawing especially on the French Revolution and also American Revolution and the fundamental rights that their new revolutionary societies produced…
View More Review: Rights of Man – by Thomas Paine
What’s a grown 45 year old male doing reading a little Bosnian girl’s diary you might ask yourself. Well, it cropped up as a recommendation in a documentary on the war in the former Yugoslavia, a subject to which I have passionately researched from its genesis. The Balkans conflict is…
View More Review: Zlata’s Diary – A Child’s Life in Sarajevo – by Zlata Filipović
In “Forty Nights,” Chris shares his journey through addiction and struggles on the margins of society, contrasting the glamorous perceptions of drug culture. The book paints a raw picture of his life in Devon, exploring themes of mental health and societal oppression. Despite challenges, it offers a hopeful narrative of recovery and transformation.
View More Review: Forty Nights – by Chris Thrall
Although by the time I finally finished reading this book it was perhaps over a decade old and hence due the hi-tech nature of the subject, perhaps dated, I gained a lot of new knowledge about the robotics industry, technological progress in society and in particular, the application of robotics…
View More Review: Wired for War by P.W.SingerJason is a Welsh Musician, and in this short book, he details his most recent Camino de Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage experience. He takes the Camino Portugués from Porto, a follow up to his previous encounter with the more traditional, and more widely known and popular, Camino Frances. We find…
View More Review: Chav Punk Hobbit – The Quest to The End Of The World – by Jason Phillips
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse My rating: 4 of 5 stars This short work by German / Swiss author and nobel literature prizewinner, Herman Hesse, was a cornerstone of the hippy movement which emerged during the 1960s. The book explores the journey of a young Indian man through an adventurous life,…
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Just going back to my regular meeting with the Stasi earlier this week… (Stasi were originally the East German Secret Police) I refer to my crack psychiatric home treatment team endearingly as the Stasi as it sums up neatly what they are really like. I was discussing with David, the…
View More Your God is a False God
Trafik, an innovative electronica group, opens their ‘None But The Brave’ album with “Dark Times,” reflecting on societal struggles within healthcare. They evoke a rebirth of fundamental human rights and express a desire for a Renaissance to combat current challenges, advocating for the End of Terror in mental health and psychiatry.
View More Dark Times
Sicknote are my mates – please support their great music! I’ve been up all night debating about whether or not to go to the Mental Health Review Tribunal Scheduled for tomorrow at 11am at Talygarn Ward, Griffithstown Hospital, Pontypool. I have an appeal against the Community Treatment Order (CTO) that…
View More Mental Health Review Tribunal – Phone In Sick