Kester Brewin

It’s been a very very busy 10 days since the NicsFight campaign kicked off. For those of you who don’t know, my very good friend Nic died in October from cancer; his insurance company (Friends Life) have been refusing to pay out on a critical illness policy which would transform the lives of the widow [...]

Been a pretty crazy time leading up to this, but really excited to be flying over to the US this Friday for 10 days or so of events promoting Mutiny!, mostly with my fellow insurrectionist, Pete Rollins. I’m particularly pleased to be able to be bringing this book to the US, because one of the [...]

Really nice article by Gavin Mueller over at the Jacobin – a magazine of culture and polemic -asking if piracy has been a ‘radical force.’ Once the heroes of nations, pirates went from being state-sponsored champions to tolerated annoyances to the basest sort of criminals. Henry Morgan was knighted after plundering Panama in 1674; fifty years [...]

As I build up to coming over the US to speak about Mutiny in about a month’s time – details to follow soon – I’m going to be blogging a bit more about the book, and the wide themes that it covers. Reading Tad Delay’s blog today though, inspired me to mention a perspective on [...]

With more people reading Mutiny!, and some groups studying it in classes or reading groups, I thought it might good to have a discussion space where people can ask questions about the text and debate some of the issues in it. It’s a pretty old school solution, but thought I’d give some discussion boards a [...]

Been meaning to write something on Pussy Riot for a while now. I’ve been reflecting on how their protest resonates with the ancient practice of ‘beating the bounds.’ Traditionally, each year, members of a parish would march around the parish boundary, often singing hymns and songs. The ritual served two purposes. Firstly, it passed on [...]

  One of the nicest parts about publishing a book is getting the feedback from people once they’ve read it. Not the reviews – that’s more distant – but actual readers on the ground. With Mutiny! (which is on special 25% discount for the next few days) what’s been interesting is hearing people’s reactions to [...]

Back in London for a few days after a great break in Italy. It’s been great hearing how much people are enjoying the book and being challenged by it. Keep the reviews coming – as tweets or blog posts or, if you’re able to, on Lulu and Amazon too. As I’ve said before, one of [...]

The limited edition hardbacks I printed up of Mutiny! were pretty much a wild success … Lots of people wanted them, and people seem pretty pleased with the results. I may end up doing another limited run after the summer (and will have a few available at Greenbelt, plus perhaps some in the US in [...]

Had a question come in via Twitter the other day, asking why pirates have traditionally been depicted as having parrots on their shoulders, so thought I’d post some quick thoughts… Truth be told, there is little evidence that lots of pirates did have parrots perched on them – the image appears to have begun with [...]