In six weeks time on Thursday, October 30 I will be in New York City as the guest of the Animal Studies Initiative at New York University making a presentation about Growl and the issues that I raise in my book. This date marks the beginning of a three-week working visit to the East Coast of the USA.… Read More
The presentation that I made at the recent International Animal Rights Conference in Luxembourg is now available to watch. It was called ‘Animal Witness’ at the conference but is given the name ‘Why Animals and Their Well-Being Matter to Us’ on YouTube but more importantly it reflects the essence of what I have to say in… Read More
There’s something fascinating about the so-called Cambridge spies: Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, and Kim Philby. They all came from the upper middle class and met at Cambridge University in the 1930s. They went onto hold various powerful positions in society while acting as double agents for the U.K. and U.S.S.R. or worked in the… Read More
Two months on from the publication of Growl by Lantern Books and I pause to list some of what’s happened and what’s forthcoming. Reactions Hastings Independent free newspaper says Growl is ‘fascinating and insightful book’ Historian Hilda Kean says Growl ‘carefully debunks the idea that real change in the position of non-human animals can occur simply by individuals altering… Read More
More than 35 guests celebrated the launch of Growl at Moose’s Kitchen on Friday, July 4. The book launch party also took pride in the vibrant vegan community in St Leonards on Sea and Hastings. Party goers included folks from the Hastings Vegan Dining Club, local creatives, and friends and neighbours. Zelly Restorick, who profiled… Read More
I’m reading Growl for the first time as a book. I’ve read it before umpteen times in various incarnations as a manuscript, a work in progress (or not in progress, as the case invariably was). But now that it’s published, holding the finished book in my hands, turning the pages, reading along the lines, well, it’s… Read More
Stephen F. Eisenman is Professor of Art History at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, and author of The Cry of Nature — Art and the Making of Animal Rights (Reaktion; 2013). This is a fascinating read, which, I believe, deserves the attention of advocates and scholars alike who care deeply about animals, and why I wanted to… Read More
It’s my great honour that Brian May has very kindly written the Foreword to Growl. In the last few years, Brian has spoken out against the present UK government’s threat to repeal the Hunting Act and bring back fox, stag, and deer hunting as well as the government’s policy to kill badgers allegedly to halt… Read More
It’s important to remember the passing of Henry Salt in Brighton, England on April 19, 1939. He lived an extraordinary life championing social justice that had at its heart animal rights. He wrote his own eulogy, which was read out at his funeral, When I say I shall die, as I have lived, rationalist, socialist,… Read More
Mark Hawthorne wrote Bleating Hearts because he wanted to ‘examine animal exploitation that does not get enough (or any) attention.’ (4) As you might expect, this is a book that is a catalog of our inhumanity to animals. It’s not an easy read but each chapter concludes with a ‘What You Can Do’ section. The… Read More
There were many fine books about animal rights and related matters published in 2013. So many, in fact, that I’ve had to devise two lists: my five favourites and four noble mentions. So, let’s deal with the latter group first. I’m cheating a bit with the noble mentions. I’m reading them or they’re on my to read… Read More
A recent addition to my animal rights archive was made by lauren Ornelas. She kindly gave me a copy of The Second Seasonal Political Palate: A Feminist Vegetarian Cookbook by the Bloodroot Collective. What is particularly important about this book is that it belonged to Marti Kheel who died in 2011. lauren is like me (and many others)… Read More
I received recently a much appreciated letter from Greg Raschke, Associate Director for Collections and Scholarly Communication at NSCU Libraries, recognising my work in support of the Tom Regan Animal Rights Archive at North Carolina State University. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you personally for all of the hard work you have… Read More
With this summer’s 40th anniversary of when I worked as a student in a chicken slaughterhouse, the big news to report is that my book is scheduled for publication by Lantern Books in October. It is called GROWL. Life Lessons, Hard Truths, and Bold Strategies from an Animal Advocate. Now, I hear you say, I… Read More
I worked in a chicken slaughterhouse 40 years ago this summer. I was a student at a college in London learning how to manage hotels and restaurants. Three years later, I was a vegan at Compassion In World Farming, campaigning against factory farming and the live export of farmed animals to Europe. Today, I work… Read More
Although the impact of ecofeminism on my thinking about animal rights is as present as ever in my life, I had forgotten how important the presence of Feminists for Animal Rights was in the animal rights movement … until yesterday’s conference in celebration of the life and work of Marti Kheel at Wesleyan University in… Read More
Writing this on September 11, I cannot but help think of it as a sad day. Not only for everyone who was affected by the terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001, but also for the people in South America, when a military coup in Chile in 1973, deposed the democratically elected government. As… Read More
August always feel like the end of one year and the beginning of another. It’s a bit like New Year’s Eve. But it lasts a month. And without all the celebrations of one evening, which usually disappoint because of unrealistic expectations. August becomes a period of transition. Things past are completed. Things new started. Well,… Read More
Sue Coe is, quite simply, my favourite living artist. For me, her work sits proudly along a continuum which includes George Grosz, Otto Dix, Kathe Kollwitz, on the one hand, and El Greco, Thomas Bewick and Goya, on the other. Her creativity rightfully stands on its own merit and how she skilfully uses it to… Read More
On this day in 1941, Virginia Woolf took her life. She took a short walk from her home, Monk’s House at Rodmell in Sussex, to commit suicide. She walked into the River Ouse, after filling her coat pockets with stones. More than perhaps any other literary figure I can think of, Virginia Woolf has a… Read More
