Reviews of Commonwealth-related books appear in the Round Table Journal every two months. Here are some end-of-year recommendations, taken from 2023 reviews, books by and suggestions from members of the Round Table Editorial Board.
The Commonwealth, South Africa and ApartheidRace, Conflict and Reconciliation by Stuart Mole
Routledge, 2023.
Shridath Ramphal writes: “splendid writing…the best account written of the Commonwealth’s role in relation to South Africa and apartheid ..I hope (it) can become a standard text”.
Global Citizen: Grass Roots Activism and High Diplomacy by Carl Wright
Owen Tudor writes: Carl’s life story (so far!) demonstrates that you can maintain your principles whatever the level of activism, and proves that the local has global significance.
A Death in Malta: An Assassination and a Family’s Quest for Justice by Paul Caruana Galizia
London, Cornerstone, 2023, ISBN 9781529151558.
Politics of hate: religious Majoritarianism in South Asia edited by Farahnaz Ispahani.
Gurugram, India, HarperCollins, 2023. (Review by Venkat Iyer in the October 2023 issue.)
Migrants, the story of us all by Sam Miller
London, Abacus Books, 2023. (Reviewed by Rita Payne in the June edition.)
The Queen is Dead: the time has come for a reckoning by Stan Grant
Harper Collins, 2023. (Reviewed by Matthew Neuhaus in September.)
Derek McDougall writes: Although the book focuses on Australia it raises issues about the Commonwealth as the successor to the British Empire and the way in which the British monarchy was linked to the whole imperial project. With so much focus on indigenous dispossession and other post-colonial issues, I think the book deserves an audience beyond Australia.
Don’t forget fiction. Commonwealth literature and World Literature Written in English are flourishing
Jaimie Trinidad recommends The Escape Artist by MG Sanchez
The novel is set in 1970s Cambridge and (closed-border) Gibraltar. It is a captivating book, with a disturbing plot twist at the end. As a piece of social commentary it sheds light on uncomfortable class divisions in Gibraltarian society and the cultural gulf between Gibraltar and the UK.
Victoria Schofield and Terry Barringer recommend Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie, a British-Pakistani author
Debbie Ransome recommends When we were birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
Winner of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.
More book reviews and listings can be found in each issue of The Round Table Journal.
Find out more about the editorial board.
