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Jo Vellacott

Spokesman Books | Jo Vellacott

Jo Vellacott

Jo Vellacott is an independent scholar of peace and women's rights in Britain.

Living and Learning in Peace and War
By Jo Vellacott

This is a memoir of the first twenty-five years of a long life, blending a picture of a time long ago with the story of a thoughtful child growing up o face adulthood in a very different world. Jo Vellacott's early years were lived under the shadow still cast by the First World War, but at a time when it was still possible to hope that it had indeed been the war to end all wars. Gradually the skies darkened and the rise of Nazism came to threaten the world. Here we have a reflective account of a privileged childhood, of childish games, of boarding school, of the blitz, of wartime university years in Oxford, of factory work with high explosives, of experience as an air mechanic, all now reviewed from a perspective that includes both that of an historian and of an ordinary person who lived and learnt through it, and was changed by it. Underlying the narrative of events is a story of spiritual development, with an awareness, at its conclusion, of many miles yet to go.

Price: £10.99

190 pages | Paperback

ISBN: 978 0 85124 8707

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From Liberal to Labour
with Women's Suffrage
The Story of Catherine Marshall
By Jo Vellacott

Catherine Marshall was a vital figure in the women's suffrage movement in Britain before the First World War. Using her remarkable political skills on behalf of the major non-militant organization, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, she built close connections with major suffragist politicians, leading some - in all three parties - to consider adopting a measure of women's enfranchisement as a party plank.

By 1913 Marshall was uniquely placed as a lobbyist, with inside information and sympathetic listeners in every party. Through her the dynamically reorganized NUWSS brought the women's suffrage issue to the fore of public awareness. It pushed the Labour Party to adopt a strong stand on women's suffrage and raised working-class consciousness, re-awakening a long-dormant demand for full adult enfranchisement. Had the general election due in 1915 taken place, NUWSS financial and organizational support for the Labour Party might well have been substantial enough to influence the final results.

'The book's great strength is its insider perspective, based on the author's exemplary, definitive analysis of the huge archive of Catherine Marshall papers - a source never so thoroughly worked before. The author is clearly the world authority on this material and her work is, in addition to its contribution to British political history, a real addition to the growing corpus of British women's biography.'
SYBIL OLDFIELD, University of Sussex

Price: £17.99

518 pages | Indexed

ISBN: 978 0 85124 8523

Paperback

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<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Conscientious Objection: Bertrand Russell</span>

Conscientious Objection: Bertrand Russell
and the Pacifists in the First World War
By Jo Vellacott

'I am glad to have this book become available again, virtually unchanged, but with a new title to emphasise the role of the Conscientious Objectors. Although this story of the No-Conscription Fellowship (NCF) focuses on Bertrand Russell’s contribution, it has been recognised as contributing to an understanding of how the NCF was made up, how it worked, its successes and failures, and dissensions within it, particularly over the acceptability of various forms of alternative service and of political action in the cause of peace ...

Russell’s first few months in the No-Conscription Fellowship had qualities which could not last, and could never be replicated. A particular kind of companionship comes when we work closely with a few others in a crisis situation, and Mephy (Russell’s nickname), CA (Clifford Allen) and CEM (Catherine Marshall) had it in abundance during the early months of the implementation of the Military Service Act. Russell later forgot the intensity and the joy of the experience, but he left it on record in his letters to Ottoline Morrell.’
Jo Vellacott

Price: £14.99

340 pages

Paperback

ISBN: 978 0 85124 8424

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Spokesman Books | Jo Vellacott

This catalog is reserved for registered customers only. Please contact us to register.