This lesser-known war poem by Wilfrid Gibson was written shortly after the birth of his first child, Audrey, on May 31, 1916. It remains all too relevant today One-Day-Old Baby asleep on my arm, Would that my heart could enfold you, Cherish you, shelter you, hold you Ever from harm. Born in a season of … Continue reading For Armistice Day 2023: poem by Wilfrid Gibson
‘True patriotism is a burning shame for our country’s injustice and wrongdoing’ — Elizabeth Gibson, 1908. British poet Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne contributed to the ferment of new ideas about art, religion, poetry and politics in the early twentieth century. She was a suffragist, socialist and freethinker as well as a poet, and her social networks … Continue reading New in November 2023: ‘A Poet among the Social Reformers’, Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne: Suffragist, Socialist and Freethinker.
I’m happy to announce that my biographical article about Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne has just been published in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. In her lifetime she was sufficiently well known to be included in Who’s Who (first appearing there in 1912, a year earlier than her brother, poet Wilfrid Gibson)—but it has taken … Continue reading News July 2023: Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne Added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; plus new selection of her poems
In June 1916, London anarchists Lilian Wolfe and her companion, Tom Keell, were prosecuted under the wartime Defence of the Realm Act for publishing an anti-conscription leaflet. Lilian, who was pregnant at the time, pleaded ‘Guilty – of telling the truth’. Both chose prison rather than paying fines, though Lilian was released early because of … Continue reading New in October 2022: ‘I didn’t know I was the child of unusual parents’: Tom Keell Wolfe interview notes
I have just posted unpublished notes from two interviews with activist Kitty Lamb (1901 – 1992) about her life and the development of her anarchist beliefs. She participated in raising money for the Republic during the Spanish Civil War, war resistance in the Second World War, the campaign against capital punishment in the nineteen-fifties, and … Continue reading New in August 2022: ‘I was born an anarchist’: Kitty Lamb interview notes
Here are four poems for Armistice Day, by Wilfrid Gibson. Best known for his poems of the First World War, he continued to write about war and its aftermath until the Second World War. For more of his war poems, see Suspense and War Poems Bacchanal (November, 1918) Into the twilight of Trafalgar Square They … Continue reading Wilfrid Gibson poems for Armistice Day, November 2018
Although poet and feminist Elizabeth Gibson (later Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne), was a prolific writer, publishing some forty books of prose and poetry, her work is very difficult to find. As I discovered doing my own research, there is hardly any publicly available information about her. As a step towards remedying this, I have produced two … Continue reading New in June 2018: A selection of poems by Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne, plus biographical information.
New Upload: I have now added extracts from four more interviews to Anarchism and Feminism: voices from the seventies. Women activists discuss anarchism, feminism, and the relationship between the personal and the political: Marie : I think we have to change what anarchism is. Angela: Acting non-hierarchically affects every part of our lives. Ruth: I … Continue reading New in October 2014: Part Two of Anarchism and Feminism in the 1970s