Mike, while digging out some stuff to scan for the gallery, I came across your non-fiction item from the early 80s The Retreat From Liberty. Looking at it again I wondered if you'd ever thought of doing a follow up, revisiting the theme and seeing what has changed in the last twenty years or so.
So much has happened since that time. Obviously the events of the last few years have had a major impact on the concept of personal liberty in a political sense. On the other hand, the original book ends with an account of a prosecution for selling 'obscene' material, yet the last few years has seen a remarkable loosening of such attitudes in the UK, with porn being legalised and many horror films being issued on video that would have been prosecuted for obscenity only a decade or so ago.
I'm not sure if there's a market for such a book these days but I, for one, would love to read it if there was. I like the way you've combined fiction and non-fiction works in some books (like Casablanca). I guess that allows you to put out certain stuff that wouldn't necessarily be commercially viable on it's own?
So much has happened since that time. Obviously the events of the last few years have had a major impact on the concept of personal liberty in a political sense. On the other hand, the original book ends with an account of a prosecution for selling 'obscene' material, yet the last few years has seen a remarkable loosening of such attitudes in the UK, with porn being legalised and many horror films being issued on video that would have been prosecuted for obscenity only a decade or so ago.
I'm not sure if there's a market for such a book these days but I, for one, would love to read it if there was. I like the way you've combined fiction and non-fiction works in some books (like Casablanca). I guess that allows you to put out certain stuff that wouldn't necessarily be commercially viable on it's own?
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