Book reviews

Lobster Issue

[…] us this about Sarah Brown and the spin doctors, Damian McBride and Charlie Whelan: ‘The demure public image was the front of a woman with a steely mind who was fiercely protective of her husband and family. She formed a strong, and to some at No 10 surprising, alliance with Damian McBride and Charlie […]

Divine Rascal: On the Trail of LSD’s Cosmic Courier, Michael Hollingshead by Andy Roberts

Lobster Issue 80 (Winter 2020)

[PDF file]: […] and if he did, in what capacity. The evidence here isn’t overwhelming, but on balance one would conclude he did. The most likely explanation that comes to mind is that his well above average intelligence was noted in the RAF. He was taught Danish and Norwegian and posted, after formal discharge, to Copenhagen where […]

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue 92 (2026)

[PDF file]: […] Cold War there have been occasions when the intelligence services, the CIA and SIS for example, actually did provide intelligence of substance. The first that springs to mind was the Cuban missile crisis, when the information from the Soviet intelligence officer Penkofsky about the actual accuracy of Soviet missiles did appear to play a […]

Undercover killers at the BBC

Lobster Issue 84 (Winter 2022)

[PDF file]: […] dead four years later on a ridge 700 metres below the summit of Mount Snowdon. A coroner found that he died of exposure when his state of mind was affected by alcohol, sleeping pills and confusion due to his personal situation. Paul Atkinson has now revealed how nine months before the Burnt House Farm […]

The Super-Rich Shall Inherit the Earth: The New Global Oligarchs and How They’re Taking Over Our World by Stephen Armstrong

Lobster Issue

[…] ‘affordable’ colourchanging fibre-optic carpets (currently very ‘in’) become available, although if platinum taps hit Homebase any time soon, the billionaires will have to up their game sharply. Mind you, even with this trend it will probably be a while before any of us mere mortals are shopping for helicopters and submarines, as many of […]

The Reinvention of Britain 1960-2016: a political and economic history by Scott Newton

Lobster Issue 74 (Winter 2017)

[PDF file]: […] and economic underperformance spurred a search for more modern tools than public ownership and strong trade unions. That is fair enough, but it should be borne in mind that social democracy, as practised from Macmillan onwards, was to the right of the 1945 settlement. Hence the impatience of Labour romantics such as Michael Foot […]

Left Out: The Inside Story of Labour Under Corbyn, and, This Land: The Story of a Movement

Lobster Issue 80 (Winter 2020)

[PDF file]: […] a delicate time to move on the British people from the ‘war on terror’ mindset previous leaders and their media backers had encouraged, a belligerent state of mind challenged in 2003 by Corbyn’s friend Robin Cook when he opposed the invasion of Iraq.52 Time will tell whether such hopes for a different, more equal, […]

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