The News From Nowhere Club meets every second Saturday of the month in Leytonstone’s St John’s Church Hall, writes Marco Marcelline

A Leytonstone talks society has announced a bumper catalogue of events and talks this year, with the first (taking place this Saturday 11th January) celebrating the literary contributions of “Britain’s most famous anarchist” and local man Colin Ward.
The News From Nowhere Club, founded in 1996 with the aim of challenging the “commercialisation, isolation and privatisation of modern life”, meets in St John’s Church, Leytonstone, monthly on Saturday evenings. It is free and open to anyone with no pre-event booking required, though donations are encouraged.
2024 marked Ward’s 100th birthday and his books, whose ideas and writings remain influential across the world. Born in Wanstead, he left school early and worked as a draughtsman, before turning to writing.
His books include The Child in the City, Arcadia for All, Reflected in Water, and When We Build Again.
He wrote regularly for New Society and The New Statesman. His centenary is celebrated in a collection of essays by 18 admirers, Mutual Aid, Everyday Anarchy: Essays on Colin Ward, (Five Leaves Press) whose many insights into Colin’s work are the subject of this talk.
Ken Warpole, a friend of Colin for 40 years, and who once published a festschrift in honour of him, Richer Futures, will host the talk in St John’s Church Hall from 8pm.
Other promising talks on the club’s 2025 schedule include an 8th March talk from Dez Brown, the founder and CEO of Spark2Life, a charity that supports young people and those who face injustice to make positive, productive life choices.
Dez will share lessons he has learned through turning around his life; at 17 he was imprisoned for manslaughter, culminating in him finding faith and becoming an ordained minister. A multi-hyphenate, Dez has written an autobiography, Convicted or Condemned; is a qualified therapist; trains professionals on trauma awareness; served as a prison therapist and as a sessional prison chaplain.

On 10th May, there will be a talk about the social care crisis and what can be done about it, hosted by speaker Anne Gray, who has set out some solutions in her forthcoming book A Radical Approach to the Care Crisis; Community, Solidarity and a National Care Service.
The following month (14th June) will see a fascinating talk from Clasford Stirling MBE about how his lifelong estate Broadwater Farm, turned itself around from a crime ridden 1980s horror story, to one of the safest estates in London by 2005.
Later in the summer, (12th July) there will be a contentious debate between a wide smattering of political parties and groups on the left including the Communist Party, the Greens, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and the Socialist Party.
And one year on from the anti-racist protest attended by thousands in Walthamstow, (9th August), Kevin Blowe, of cop watchdog NetPol, will speak on how there is a deeply entrenched distrust of the police amongst black and Asian communities, and how people can sustain opposition to both the far right and state violence.
On 4th October, there will be a talk from Southend born author Tim Burrows on his book The Invention of Essex: The making of an English county, described as the “most insightful, thorough, hilarious and poignant investigation of place, of people, of history”.
Later in the year (8th November), speakers from housing activist groups like London Renters Union, Pavement, and Focus E15, will discuss how they are trying to do something serious and bold about the housing scandal.
Find the full list of scheduled 2025 talks on the News From Nowhere Club’s website here. You can send enquiries to [email protected]
Meetings start with a buffet at 7.30pm followed by a talk at 8.00pm, then discussion at about 9.00pm
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