Tariq Ali on the impatience of E P Thompson
(Edward) Thompson was temperamentally impatient and determined to get the magazine (New Left Review) off the ground as soon as possible. This seems to flow into other parts of his life. Decades later Christopher Hill confessed to me that the ‘rudest and most obnoxious letter I have ever received in my life was from Edward’. Why. ‘Because’ he replied ‘I was taking too long to leave the CPGB’
Tariq Ali. You Can’t Please All. Memoirs 1980-2024
The book, an essential read for those interested in the history of the British left from the 1960s on has many fascinating, and more positive(!) vignettes about both Edward and Dorothy Thompson
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