Don't Let My Past Be Your Future: A Call to Arms - Softcover

Smith, Harry Leslie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1472123476 ISBN 13: 9781472123473

Publisher: Constable, 2018

Synopsis

'Harry Leslie Smith is a vital and powerful voice speaking across generations about the struggle for a just society' Jeremy Corbyn

THIS A CALL TO ARMS FOR THE MANY, NOT THE FEW: DON'T LET THE PAST BECOME OUR FUTURE

Harry Leslie Smith is a great British stalwart. A survivor of the Great Depression, a Second World War veteran, a lifelong Labour supporter and a proud Yorkshire man, Harry's life has straddled two centuries. As a young man, he witnessed a country in crisis with no healthcare, no relief for the poor, and a huge economic gulf between the North and South. Now in his nineties, Harry wanders through the streets of his youth and wonders whether anything has actually changed.

Britain is at its most dangerous juncture since Harry's youth - the NHS and social housing are in crisis, whilst Brexit and an unpopular government continue to divide the country - but there is hope. Just as Clement Attlee provided hope in 1945, Labour's triumphant comeback of June 2017 is a beacon of light in this season of discontent. Britain has overcome adversity before and will do so again - a new nation will be forged from the ashes of grave injustice.

Moving and passionate, Don't Let My Past be Your Future interweaves memoir and polemic in a call to arms. Above all, this book is a homage to the boundless grace and resilience of the human spirit.

About this title

About the Author

Harry Leslie Smith was born into extreme poverty in Barnsley in 1923. He survived the Great Depression by working as a child labourer and served his country in the RAF during the Second World War. Afterwards he returned to civilian life by marrying and, along with many from his generation, helping to lay the cornerstones of the welfare by becoming an engaged citizen.

At ninety-four, Harry is an activist for the poor, the NHS and the preservation of social democracy. He is the author of five books and a frequent contributor to the New Statesman, Daily Mirror and Guardian, for whom his video essay on the refugee crisis was shared over a million times on Facebook and has attracted huge comment and debate. Refusing to go gently into that good night, Harry now hosts a weekly podcast. When not on the road speaking about his life experiences, he divides his time between Yorkshire and Ontario, Canada.

Review

I dipped into the book and then I kept on reading - it's a beautiful, wise and righteous piece of work and truly generous to the coming generation―A.L. Kennedy

Powerfully written . . . with a passion and poignancy still all too rare in our body politic―Open Democracy

In his winter years, Smith has lost none of his righteous passion, nor his knack for vivid prose―New Statesman

If you truly want to comprehend the dangerous place in which we find ourselves today, social, economic and political and how we came to be in this mess, look no further then Harry Leslie Smiths extraordinary new book Don't Let My Past Be Your Future. Never have the words of this great man been of more relevance, not just to you and I but to our children and our children's children. At times Harry's book will make you angry; it will make you cry; but ultimately it will fill you with the desire to rise up against injustice and what a testament that is to the words of this incredible man―Peter Stefanovic, lawyer, blogger

There is not a life away from poverty once you've known it. The nicest sweets will always leave you with the shadow of hunger as an aftertaste. In this book, Harry Leslie Smith has remembered the Britain of his youth, and it's a cautionary tale. Without safety nets, people die, and poverty's few survivors always bear lifelong scars. There are few thinking-men I respect more in the world than Harry, and in clear prose he explains poverty's brutality, sparing himself nothing, so that the rest of us might learn something from his pain. The man is in his nineties and reading this book is like watching him turn austerity's boosters over his knee like naughty children; it's well worth your time. I am grateful to have been able to read this book.―Linda Tirando, anti-poverty activist

Through reading Harry's words, I feel as if I am walking the bridge between his generation and my own. His experiences as a child in the Great Depression highlight the dangerous times we now live in - in which the destruction of the NHS and welfare state risk dragging us back to a Britain of the 1930s. Harry's work to defend and champion our public services is something I am endlessly grateful for. He is an inspiration―Emily Berrington

This is a wonderful book and a timely reminder that so much of the progress we take for granted came not from the benevolence of the great and good, but from the collective struggles of previous generations of working people. At a time when the need for decent jobs, homes, rights and services is more pressing than ever, Don't Let My Past Be Your Future is a must read for trade unionists, campaigners and everyone on the left.―Frances O?Grady, General Secretary, Trades Union Congress

This is a powerful and deeply moving personal memoir of a Dickensian-like childhood shaped by hunger, suffering and family despair in pre-war Britain. As today's world drifts back towards the extreme inequality that marked Harry Leslie Smith's childhood, we would be crazy to ignore his stirring call-to-arms in defence of the welfare state.―Linda McQuaig

Wonderful, impassioned . . . important―Rick O'Shea

Utterly compelling . . . measured but unflinching . . . the clear-sighted power of his writing is something that all of us should pay heed to and its call is one we must answer―Unison

About this edition

• Publisher: Constable
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1472123476
• ISBN 13: 9781472123473
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240