Albert Meltzer
AK Press (PO Box 12766, Edinburgh EH8 9YE) 1996, £12.95
This is the autobiography of recently deceased veteran anarchist Meltzer, best known in this country, perhaps, for his book with Stewart Christie, The Floodgates of Anarchy, and as editor of Black Flag. Meltzer was there or thereabouts at a great many events on the British (and Spanish) political underground since the war and the book is thus dotted with interesting fragments about the area where the state, the intelligence services and political activity overlap. There are little bits of new information or perspectives, for example, on Will Owen, the Labour MP who was ripping-off the Czechs and got done (but acquitted) for espionage; the attempting framing of Peter Hain; agent provocateurs in the labour movement; the ‘Angry Brigade’; Searchlight magazine, and the role of state agents here, there and everywhere. (I know nothing about Spanish history and just skipped those sections.)
The book as a whole is an interesting account of the post-war British left, albeit from one particular viewpoint; and, despite odd flashes of score-settling, Meltzer is an amusing raconteur.
But a memoir without a name index…..? A metaphor involving tits and a bull comes to mind.