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David Goodway, 'Colin Ward' in Anarchist Seeds beneath the Snow Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2006; 401 pp; ISBN 978-1-84631-025-6
Carissa Honeywell, 'Colin Ward and the Future of British Anarchism' in A British Anarchist Tradition London: Bloomsbury, 2011; 204pp; ISBN 978-1-4411-7689-9
Carl Levy (ed.), Colin Ward: Life, Times and Thought London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2014; 144pp; ISBN 978-1-907103-73-5
The latter years of the life of Colin Ward - and, to a greater extent, those since his death - witnessed the emergence of a modest but steadily expanding secondary literature on the life and work of the pioneering anarchist writer. This trend should be embraced by those within anarchist circles and beyond, for the far-reaching influence of Ward's work had previously been somewhat overlooked. Here, I briefly survey a small sample of commentary, considering alongside a recently published collection edited by Carl Levy, chapters by David Goodway and Carissa Honeywell - both of whom, incidentally, also contribute to Levy's book.
The essays presented in Levy's volume are not new, but originally appeared in an Anarchist Studies special issue on Ward in 2011. Nevertheless, a second outing in this tidy and really rather enjoyable anthology is very much welcome, and it represents a worthy attempt at securing wider exposure both for these eight articles and the work of Ward himself. Colin Ward: Life, Times and Thought is a slender little number, weighing in at just shy of 150 pages but, thankfully, Levy's editor- ship has maximised their usage. The style remains very much true to Ward's own: low on verbosity and academic jargon; high on clarity and readability. Importantly, this is achieved without...