Granny Made Me an Anarchist Paperback – 1 Aug 2005

I picked this book up at book shop here in Edinburgh. I'd never heard of it - and was amused by a young Scottish Anarchist trying to blow Franco up. I've not been able to put it down since getting it - it is absolutely fascinating. Not only is the personal story rivetting - but it also has reminded me of past struggles to try and makes social change to make a better society. It also made me realise that the things we were protesting again are still there and the struggle for right and equality are still valid. Society here in Britian and the World has changed so much; in the past there were struggle for justice - but now we are so seduced into the aquiring of property and that if you are not you feel like some dinosaur from the past. This book has reminded me what it is all about and that that niggling feeling that you don't fit in and buy into the consumerist ideology isn't that you have a problem but that the problem is the make up of society. It is also relevent when we are seeing protests against world poverty and the other protest against what is going on - in reminding us that we each can make a differnence - when se so often feel that our voices are lost. If for nothing else I have to thank Stuart Christie for reminding me of this. I'd recommend this book to anyone to read. Even if you do not happen to agree with the politics - I am sure that reading his account of incarciartion in a Franco gaol - where invertantly this ended up putting him into contact with some of Spain's greatest academics - will find it fascinating

This is 'real-life boys-own anarchist meets the establishment' adventure! And meeting the Spanish establishment (in a hare-brained plot to kill the Spanish dictator Franco in the 1960s) was where Christie bites off a wee bit more than he can chew. If that's not enough reason to buy the book, you get a richly-evoked Glasgow childhood and more shenanigans in London in the 1970s with bomb plots, squatters and of course the Old Bill.

When I was ordering Homage to Caledonia I had a look at the 'customers who bought this also bought.....' section. I was intrigued by the title of Granny... and tempted by the good reviews. As it turns out I have read this before even opening Homage to Caledonia and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Although the subject is serious - a) the cruel regime of Franco and b) being imprisonned in a Spanish jail during the Franco regime, the author has a light and often entertaining touch, without being flippant. Given the subject matter it could have been very dreary but on the contrary it turned out to be interesting and often amusing and illuminating.

Stuart Christie, more well known for his 'involvement' with the Angry Brigade anarcho/revolutionary movement than his attempt to assinate the reactionary Spanish dictator Franco, is a leftie who walks the walk rather than just talking the talk. Paints a fantastic picture of a working class upbringing in post war Glasgow and his recollections of a lenghty prison stretch in a Madrid jail with other political prisoners of the anti Franco resistance are written with verve, wit and not too much of playing the blame game. Meu culpa. Later life in London, during the time a lot of us on the left thought a workers takeover of the UK economy was on the cards, is a joy to read as is his account of the numerous attempts by the old bill to stitch him up are no surprise to anyone who lived through those hectic times. Great read for everybody, even your Granny.

Although written from an anarchists point of view,I found this book to be of great interest to me as an enlightening commentary on many events that I heard of during my lifetime. It is written by someone who is now a small part of history. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in alternative politics.

Stuart Christie packed more into the first 25 years of his life than most people manage in a lifetime, and this book about his early life easily holds your attention.

A well written piece about a very interesting man and the people he surrounds himself with through a life of anarchist political activism. Initially attracted by the title, as I'd never heard of the Franco episode in his life, this turned out to be a cracking story punctuated with familiar figures from modern history, entertaining asides and references from literature of all kinds. Well worth it.