Win a copy of Techno Tantrums

David Boyle writes: Goodreads Book Giveaway Techno Tantrums by David Boyle Giveaway ends September 17, 2017. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter Giveaway What is the most difficult elements of bringing up children these days? Homework, bullying, bedtime? At least one study puts the issue of time spent online – on games or social […]

The first two Brexits: Dunkirk and Henry VIII

A version of this post first appeared on the Radix blog. David Boyle writes… There are so many candidates for regular circles of life, from Halley’s Comet to the Kondratieff Cycle. I have been arguing for a year or two that we were hurtling towards a major political and economic shift, not because of the […]

The story behind Mad to be Normal

Something about our culture is riveted by the 1960s and 70s, and it was certainly a peculiar time – I’m old enough to remember it. But the ultimate period film is coming out in April, where the actor David Tennant plays the ultimate 1970s icon, the radical psychiatrist R. D. Laing. The film, Mad to be […]

How the #passengerstrike struck home

David Boyle, the author of Cancelled! writes: I have two questions about the unravelling of Southern Rail, and the plight of the passengers, and I’m going to ask them both in the hope that people can answer them for me – but I’m also going to suggest some answers myself. First, why do the platform indicators […]

How I came to write William Shakespeare, Apprentice

Ursula Bertele de Allendesalazar writes: At the grammar school I attended, back in the 1950s, Shakespeare was on the menu in force. Coming straight from the 11- plus, we were started on a Midsummer Night’s Dream. We then worked our way successively through half of Shakespeare’s plays and did Hamlet, The Tempest and the Sonnets […]

An empty railway, echoing to the sound of machinery

David Boyle writes: When the former Prime Minister David Lloyd George intervened in the debate which led to the resignation of Neville Chamberlain in April 1940, he urged Winston Churchill not to act as an “air raid shelter” for the prime minister. I have felt something rather similar over the past fortnight during the first […]

Amazon’s worrying new puritanism

In the Spring, we were very excited to publish Fanny Calder’s unique novel The Men, and it is attracted quite a lot of interest and some excellent reviews on Amazon. I took the decision to test out the new advertising service on Amazon too, and was pleased with the result. After a lot of thought, we […]

A new insight into why Southern rail unravelled

David Boyle, the author of Cancelled!, writes: I am extremely grateful, not to say humbled, by the response to my book. Every day, I am getting feedback, information, insights – particularly from Southern’s guards and drivers. I am blogging elsewhere to keep up, though the mainstream media has finally now caught up with the story of […]

Cancelled: the new twist in the Southern Rail meltdown

The Real Press is partly a new way of publishing and thinking about history, and partly – in a small way – an attempt to reinvent publishing. So when David Boyle suddenly found himself receiving hundreds of messages about the bizarre unravelling of the Southern Railways, he thought it was a perfect moment to show […]

Seventy-five years on: the launch of the V for Victory campaign

David Boyle writes: Today (6 June) marks the 75th anniversary of an important moment in the history of British relations with Europe – a moment when the UK spoke confidently, and without complex spin, to the people of the continent. And were listened to with trust. Just after 11pm, on 6 June 1941, the BBC’s […]