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Book review: 60 Years of World-Mending by James Leatham

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James Leatham was a prominent figure in his day, has been all but forgotten because he was a radical independent socialist who refused to be restricted by any ‘party line’.

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From his early years in Aberdeen where he set up the first Socialist Weekly Newspaper to his activism in Manchester in the late 1890s where he was instrumental in obtaining an eight-hour work deal for workers in the print trade (activity which saw him blacklisted from work in the city) and in the later years, he was often in the thick of the push towards socialism.

His writings on political, social and cultural issues span over 60 years and are fascinating in their breadth, content and insight. In the book he writes about the famous figures of the day: from Keir Hardie and Ramsay MacDonald to George Bernard Shaw and William Morris as well as about many other figures who never shared the limelight but whose contributions to the birth of socialism were significant.

His autobiography, cut short by his death aged 79 in 1945, offers a unique insight and individual perspective on Britain over a tempestuous time. It is social history at its finest and is published as Deveron Press commemorates the 100th anniversary of Leatham’s foundation of this publishing enterprise.

Now buried in St. Machar Cathedral churchyard in Aberdeen his gravestone inscription reads: James Leatham, 1865-1945: Man of Letters; Pioneer of Social Reform. This book offers a unique insight into his views on British social history and culture between 1880’s and 1940’s. On the same date this book is published, Deveron Press will also republish the only extant biography of James Leatham; ‘James Leatham, profile of a Socialist Pioneer’, by Robert Duncan.

Published by The Deveron Press