Manchester University Press

A bold, tender exploration of how queerness and nature entwine – and what happens when we step beyond the binaries that fence us in. There is a Q in garden, but you can’t always see it. When Jenny Chamarette faced a devastating health crisis, they found themselves unmoored from the rules of gender, sexuality and productivity. In a small South London garden, Jenny began to imagine another way of living: porous, unruly, rooted in the lessons of soil and plant life. Gardens, like identities, are usually bounded – but what if those limits can be re-drawn? Blending memoir and cultural criticism, this book asks whether the categories we inherit – colonial, patriarchal, conventions of sexuality and gender – still serve us, or whether they confine us. From illness and recovery to queer love and ecological wonder, Q is for garden invites readers to reimagine how we inhabit land, culture and each other. An eloquent work of nature writing and queer thought, Q is for garden digs into the rich history of queer gardeners, botanists, artists and agriculturalists. It offers a hopeful vision of belonging, if we are curious enough to unearth it. -- .

A thoughtful exploration of the work of this unique comedian and writer. Caroline Aherne was one of the most influential and beloved of British comedians. In this book David Scott explores Aherne’s comedic artistry and creative legacy, focusing on her iconic characters and ground-breaking TV shows. Scott dives into Aherne’s most memorable creations, from the sharp-tongued Mrs Merton to the quietly revolutionary The Royle Family. Drawing on the tales of collaborators and telling behind-the-scenes stories, he provides an intimate glimpse into the creative processes that brought these iconic works to life. At the same time, he examines the social and cultural influences that shaped Aherne’s work, from the rich traditions of Northern working-class humour to the experiences of Irish migrants. Aherne’s work is celebrated for its sharp wit, warmth and ability to find comedy in adversity. This book offers an exploration and celebration of one of comedy’s most inventive minds, revealing how she reshaped the British comedy landscape. -- .

A writer's quest to understand the deep past and uncertain future of his homeland. After inheriting the miner's safety lamp that belonged to his great-grandfather, Jake Morris-Campbell sets out on a pilgrimage across his homeland. Travelling from the Holy Island of Lindisfarne to Durham Cathedral, he asks what new ways might be made through the old north. This region, a hub of early Christian Britain and later strongly defined by industry and class, now faces an uncertain future. But it remains a unique and starkly beautiful part of the country, with a deep history that is intimately entwined with the idea of Englishness. Jake’s journey along the ‘Camino of the North’ sees him explore the shifting nature of individual and regional identity across thirteen-hundred years of social change. At the same time, it challenges him to reconsider his own calling as a writer and how it relates to the lives of the people he meets along the way. Between the salt and the ash asks what stories the North East can tell about itself in the wake of Christianity and coal. Rejecting the damaging trope of ‘left behind’ communities, Jake uncovers neglected seams of culture and history, while offering a heartfelt celebration of the place he calls hyem. -- .

The irresistible story of a one-man cultural phenomenon. Minister for the Counterculture, Mancunian mainstay and alternative national treasure John Robb has lived a life in music. In this book he charts his adventures on the cultural frontline, chronicling the making of a DIY icon. Robb’s quest began in his hometown of Blackpool – where punk was a battle against the odds – and went international when he toured the world with his band. The first person to interview Nirvana, he also discovered The Stone Roses for weekly newspaper Sounds and did early interviews with The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Manics, before moving on to legends such as Mark E. Smith, Nick Cave and Patti Smith. Along the way, he became an on-screen commentator and author of bestselling books. Robb’s memoir tells of deep friendships with figures from Poly Styrene to Chris Packham. Packed with riotous stories, it provides an alternative account of British musical and cultural history and a triumphant blueprint for a punk rock life. -- .

What happens when a president convinces the world he might just do the unthinkable? In US grand strategy and the madman theory, James D. Boys argues that projecting calculated irrationality can terrify adversaries into submission, but at enormous risk. From Nixon’s secret Cold War gambit to Trump’s chaotic, tweet-driven diplomacy, he explores how these two leaders weaponised unpredictability to keep allies guessing and enemies off balance. But where does strategy end and madness begi? n an era where perception can dictate power, unpredictability becomes a weapon and fear its sharpest edge. This book reveals how calculated chaos reshapes diplomacy, destabilises norms and forces nations to question whether the next move is genius or catastrophe. -- .

From Manchester’s backstreets to global dancefloors – the untold story of a musical pioneer. Beginning on the night in November 1963 when his mum took him to see the Beatles live at Manchester’s ABC Cinema, Mike Pickering takes the reader through sixty years of clubs, clothes, gigs, record labels, football matches and politics. Pickering has lived through decades of rapid change in popular music. As an influential DJ he introduced house music into the legendary Haçienda. He signed Happy Mondays and James to Factory Records before working with Kasabian, Gossip and Calvin Harris at Sony. His Mercury Prize-winning, multi-million-selling group M People transformed the music industry's attitude to dance music. As he tells his remarkable story he introduces an array of friends and collaborators, many of whom would become important – and sometimes notorious – figures in music history. Manchester must dance is a revelatory insider’s account that moves from the cramped back streets of 1950s north Manchester on a journey deep into music, the city and the wider world. It features forewords from some of those Pickering inspired: Martin Fry, Johnny Marr, Noel Gallagher and Calvin Harris. -- .

The globe-trotting tales of five women who fought for the right to enjoy the wild places of the earth. For millennia the ‘wild’ was a place heroic men went on epic quests. Women were prevented from joining them, either through physical control or powerful myths about what would happen if they ventured beyond the city wall or village boundary. So how did women claim their place in the remote and lovely parts of our planet? In Wildly different, historian Sarah Lonsdale traces the lives of five women who fought for the right to work in, enjoy and help to save the earth’s wild places. We’ll meet Mina Hubbard, who outraged the exploration community when she stepped into a canoe in northern Labrador. Evelyn Cheesman, who became the first female keeper of insects at London Zoo. Dorothy Pilley, who shocked polite society by donning men’s climbing breeches. Ethel Haythornthwaite, who helped make the Peak District Britain’s first National Park. And Wangari Maathai, who started a movement to plant millions of trees across sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on interviews with Sir David Attenborough, Wangari Maathai’s daughter and others, Lonsdale recounts the women’s adventures across five continents. Evocative and inspiring, this book shows how women can be ‘wildly different’. -- .

This wise and touching exploration of the relationship between poetry and suicide offers new insights for those struggling with grief. ‘A nuanced and deeply insightful book.’ – Emilie Pine, author of Notes to Self ‘A bold and truly vital work.’ – Adam Farrer, author of Broken Biscuits ‘Essential reading.’ – Anne Whitehead, author of Relating Suicide Following the loss of his twin sister, J. T. Welsch found himself drawn to the stories of poets who took their own lives. In The poetry of suicide, he interweaves these stories with the long history of suicide in his own family, searching for a new way of understanding these difficult deaths. Beginning with Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be?’, he delves into the work of Sylvia Plath, Marina Tsvetaeva and others, asking what it can teach us about suicide’s messy reality. He also explores recent controversies involving suicide, including the response to the Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why and Logan Paul’s notorious visit to Aokigahara, Japan's ‘suicide forest’. Suicide is more like poetry than we realise, Welsch argues. Both are filled with ambiguities, contradictions and unknowable intentions. Both demand and resist interpretation. Recovering the personal dimension often lost in our sanitised public discourse, Welsch finds practical ways of confronting suicide’s poem-like difficulties.

An inspiring group biography of thirteen intrepid women who challenged the status quo in interwar Britain. What did it mean to be a ‘rebel woman’ in the interwar years? Historian Sarah Lonsdale traces the struggles, passions and achievements of a set of fearlessly determined women who stopped at nothing to make their mark in the traditionally masculine environments of mountaineering, politics, engineering and journalism. From the motorist Claudia Parsons to the ‘star’ reporter Margaret Lane, the mountaineer Dorothy Pilley and the journalist Shiela Grant Duff, the women charted in this book challenged the status quo in all walks of life, alongside writing vivid, eye-witness accounts of their adventures. Recovering their voices across a range of texts, including novels, poems, journalism and diaries, Rebel women between the wars reveals the inch-by-inch gains these women won through courageous and sometimes controversial acts. -- .

Available for the first time in English translation, this collection of songs is a powerful memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. In June 1945, before the full devastation of the Holocaust had emerged, a team of researchers embarked on a remarkable project. While documenting the experiences of Jewish refugees, they began to collect songs composed and sung in the Nazi camps and ghettos. The resulting book, Mima’amakim (Out of the depths), was published in a short run of 500 copies. Today, only a handful survive. Out of the depths: The first collection of Holocaust songs presents the contents of this extraordinary document for a new generation of readers. Based on a copy of Mima’amakim discovered in 2013, it contains not only the songs’ melodies and lyrics, the latter in a new translation by Joseph Toltz, but also short biographies of the composers, drawn from painstaking original research. Introductory essays provide historical and musicological background, deepening our knowledge of this terrible event and the creative means by which the Jewish people responded to and endured it. Described by the original editor, Yehuda Eismann, as a ‘memorial stone for Polish Jewry’, the songbook is a timeless document of a people’s despair, hope and strength. -- .

A forensic examination of ethical failure in the British government. Boris Johnson’s premiership was marked by scandals that deeply undermined public trust, from dubious PPE procurement to the ‘partygate’ revelations. How did this downward spiral take hold, and what would it take to reverse i? ohn Bowers KC offers a rigorous analysis of the erosion of ethical standards before, during and after the Johnson government. Drawing on interviews with insiders, he shows how accountability mechanisms were sidelined and how a culture of favouritism flourished, rooted in the assumption that those in power could be relied upon to regulate themselves. Although the Labour victory of July 2024 brought political change, the underlying system remains vulnerable. Downward Spiral sets out concrete proposals for a more transparent and accountable alternative. -- .

An acclaimed biography of poet, pacifist and political firebrand Eva Gore-Booth. The Irish poet and activist Eva Gore-Booth (1870–1926) led a life defiantly at odds with her aristocratic origins. Choosing to live and work among the poor of Manchester, she campaigned on behalf of barmaids, circus performers, flower sellers and pit-brow lasses, her partner, Esther Roper, at her side. Gore-Booth was tireless in her pursuit of justice. She was a militant pacifist during the First World War, a champion of Irish independence and a pioneering thinker on gender and sexuality. She was also a prolific author, publishing nineteen volumes of poetry and prose that reflect the full force of her radical convictions. Featuring a new preface that situates Gore-Booth’s life and work in the context of our current political climate, this biography reclaims her place as a significant figure of Anglo–Irish letters and an unsung hero of LGBT+ history. -- .

A bold and balanced re-appraisal of New Labour in power. Rewriting the story of New Labour, Glen O’Hara challenges the prevailing narrative to present a more balanced and positive assessment. New Labour, new Britain? is the first book to examine both the intentions behind New Labour’s domestic policies and their real-world effects, moving beyond the entrenched left-right debates that have dominated the party’s legacy. The period from 1997 to 2007 marked a pivotal moment in modern British history, as New Labour sought to reshape Britain into a more cohesive and forward-thinking society. It saw the rise of socially liberal attitudes and flourishing public services under a government committed to rebuilding and investing in them. Yet New Labour’s track record was far from flawless and its legacy remains complicated and contested. Through interviews with key players and rigorous archival research, O'Hara offers a new perspective on Tony Blair’s years in power. Painting a fuller picture of New Labour’s successes and challenges, he highlights its lasting impact on Britain and offers a thoughtful reassessment of its place in history. -- .

Student, traveller, secretary, scoundrel, spy: introducing the maverick whose diplomacy saved Europe from war. Henry Wotton had already exhausted several lives when he arrived in Venice as England's ambassador in 1604. Yet the most remarkable phase of his career was yet to come. In Lying abroad, Carol Chillington Rutter tells Wotton’s extraordinary story. She reveals how this one-time exile, who fled England after his employer was convicted of treason, gained the favour of King James, securing a knighthood and a diplomatic posting. Charged with restoring relations with Venice after a fifty-year hiatus, he drew criticism for his breaches of protocol. But when a dispute brought Europe to the brink of war, Wotton took a risk – one that changed European history. This engrossing biography recounts a life that was tumultuous, tarnished and endlessly theatrical. The man King James called his ‘honest dissembler’ was a maverick who fashioned diplomacy in ways that still inform international relations today. -- .

The first book to tell the shocking story of the AIDS crisis in Soviet Russia. Throughout the 1980s, as the world was grappling with the escalating crisis of AIDS, Soviet Russia continued to deny there was a problem. Arguing that the disease was limited to foreigners and ‘immoral’ groups, the government failed to take meaningful action, long past the point other countries had begun to recognise the full scale of the threat. In this ground-breaking book, Rustam Alexander tells the story of AIDS in Soviet Russia. Fixated on disinformation, censorship and the persecution of marginalised communities, the Soviet authorities wasted precious time, allowing the epidemic to strike at the very heart of the nation: its children. Yet, despite the government’s failure, a number of brave journalists, doctors and nascent gay groups decided to take matters into their own hands and engage in full-fledged AIDS activism. Tracing the political and social response to AIDS in the final years of the Soviet era, Alexander sheds light on the devastating consequences of government inaction. He draws on personal stories, media reports and archival materials to provide a riveting account of the Russian people’s fight against AIDS amid the tumultuous transformations of Gorbachev’s perestroika. -- .

An illuminating account of how Americans have been divided by the very value that unites them. America today is being torn apart by the struggle over a single concept, deeply rooted in the country’s sense of self: freedom. Battered by wave after wave of crises, ordinary people of all political persuasions have come to feel that their freedom is under threat – and with it, nothing less than the soul of the nation. In The trouble with freedom, journalist and researcher Melissa Butcher takes a trip into the ferociously polarised world of American politics, hoping to find out what’s going on beneath the surface. Criss-crossing the country, she talks to a wide range of people: Democrat and Republican, gay and straight, urban and rural, immigrants, First Nations, Black, white, the incarcerated. What she discovers is that political conflict is often the outcome of very personal experiences of managing cultural change. Exploring the different ways freedom has been used to define what it means to be American, Butcher encounters anger and distrust, but also untapped possibilities for empathy and care. -- .