The 2015 London Radical Bookfair

Turnaround were proud to have a stall at this year’s London Radical Bookfair. It was an exciting day where we both got the chance to display and chat about the big array of radical books that we carry and be exposed to a whole load more.

Turnaround staff are partial to a good zine, and all three members of the marketing department who attended the fair left with their pockets weighed down with a lot less change then they started off with, but with their bags stuffed with a lot more homemade comics.

Over on twitter (we’re @turnarounduk) people were quick to comment on our more visual titles, including Agents Provocateurs: 100 Subversive Skateboard Graphics (Gingko Press).

Also receiving a lot of praise were The Manly Art of Knitting (Gingko Press) – the perfect book for fathers day, don’t you know? – and Hip Hop Family Tree (Fantagraphics). More on both titles later.

The main news from the fair that we have been bursting to just out and say since the start of this blog, though, is…

Honno’s Here We Stand has won the 2015 Bread and Roses Award!

Being there to see it announced was a brilliant moment. We’re always thrilled when independent publishers get their due for the constant background work they do to bring wider cultural recognition to important issues, subversive artwork or the lives of too often overlooked individuals, and this was truly such a moment.

Here are just a few things that the judges had to say about the title:

“A perfect book for the times we live in.” – Natalie Bennett, leader of The Green Party

“Consistently moving, insightful and inspiring in equal measure. The editors deserve particular praise for having so brilliantly presented these essential accounts of women involved in so many areas of struggle.” – Nina Power, Guardian writer and philosophy academic

And, for good measure, here are a few things that some other people who’ve read the book have had to say about it in recent months:

“This book will change the way you see the world.” – Josie Long, Comedian

“A source of inspiration and a call to action.” – Caroline Lucas, MP

“A beautiful and necessary book full of passion, humour, encouragment, information and hope.” – A.L. Kennedy, Novelist

So what actually is Here We Stand? Other than brilliant and loved by a who’s who of well known activists.

In short, it is an anthology of the life stories of a huge range of female UK activists. This includes Jasvinder Singh, who was awarded a CBE for her work to eliminate forced marriage, Franny Armstrong, the film-maker behind climate change blockbuster, The Age of Stupid,Angie Zelter, the woman who disabled a hawk jet with the aim of preventing a genocide in East Timor and Shauneen Lambe, the woman shortlisted for Human Rights Lawyer of the Year, alongside many more.

Here’s a lovely picture of the book’s editors with judge Natalie Bennett, to give you a small glimpse of the feelings of hope and excitement among those in the room at the announcement.

Also announced at the fair was the 2015 Little Rebels Award. Though sadly the book we were championing Pearl Power, didn’t end up winning, it’s nomination will hopefully bring it to the attention of a new and engaged audience. Read about why we like this title so much HERE.

To finish off something of a scatty and excitable blog post on our part, here’s a catch-all collection of the few images we managed to grab while we were there.

A rogue Melville House bag

Marketing Director Claire Thompson making a sale, quite possibly of our fair best-seller: Here We Stand

To the right: New Internationalist’s Dan
Even further right: Knockabout’s Tony

Radical Books (a.k.a: Slut (The Feminist Press), A blistering critique of the way we police women’s sexuality, Hip Hop Family Tree (Fantagraphics), A rare and validating exercise in documenting hip hop music and the culture it arose out of and

The Manly Art of Knitting (Gingko Press), an actual honest-to-god knitting guide that also makes an excellent point about the wrongful gendering of crafts)