When British poet and aphorist Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne described herself in Who’s Who as a suffragist, socialist and freethinker, she was actively constructing a public identity not just as a writer, but as an activist. But identities can’t be so neatly categorised and controlled. I have just uploaded a short paper discussing some of the … Continue reading New in February 2025: ‘I am a Suffragist, Socialist and Freethinker’: Shaping a Political Identity in the Early 20th Century →
2024. When British poet and aphorist Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne described herself in ‘Who’s Who’ as a suffragist, socialist and freethinker, she was actively constructing a public identity not just as a writer, but as an activist. But identities can’t be so neatly categorised and controlled. Paper given at the Womens’ History Network annual conference.
2023. 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 included artists, feminists, reformers and revolutionaries.
2023. Biographical article about Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne published in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online in July 2023.
2022 (1981) Tom Keell Wolfe, the son of anarchists Lilian Wolfe and Tom Keell, talks about his parents, life in the anarchist colony Whiteway, war resistance, and friendships with Emma Goldman, Sylvia Pankhurst, George Orwell and others, in this 1981 interview.
2022 (1980/1981). Unpublished interview notes with activist Kitty Lamb (1901 – 1992) about her life and the development of her anarchist beliefs. They give an insight into some of the shifting social and political groupings, campaigns and alliances of the twentieth century as well as her lifelong commitment to a better world.
2016. Compares the changing responses to the First World War in the writings of Wilfrid Gibson and his sister and fellow poet Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne. Revised version of article published in Dymock Poets and Friends, No 15.
2014. This short piece draws on Helen Lowe’s own words to give a background to her involvement with the feminist organisation Women Against Fundamentalism. Chapter in Women Against Fundamentalism: stories of dissent and solidarity, eds. Sukhwant Dhaliwal and Nira Yuval-Davis.
2014 (1977). Women activists speak about anarchism, feminism and the interrelationship of the personal and the political in interviews from 1977 by Lynn Alderson and Judy Greenway.
This section aims to provide a variety of resources relating to nonviolent activism. Developing it in 2014, amidst all the official ‘commemorations’ of the First World War, I decided to begin with a small selection of my own research materials, and a selection of external links, relating to war resistance and antimilitarism. More resources will … Continue reading NonViolence and Antimilitarism →