DiY Culture

George McKay is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Salford, UK, where he is Director of the Communication, Cultural & Media Studies Research Centre. He writes on alternative cultures and identities-'cultural studies with a soundtrack' is how his website puts it-and his books include DiY Culture, Senseless Acts of Beauty, Glastonbury: A Very English Fair, Community Music: A Handbook (co-edited with Pete Moser), Circular Breathing: The Cultural Politics of Jazz in Britain, Radical Gardening: Politics, Idealism & Rebellion in the Garden, and Shakin' All Over: Popular Music and Disability. He maintains his own website at http://georgemckay.org/ George Monbiot writes a weekly column for The Guardian, and is the author of a number of books, including Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning, The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order, Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain and Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding. He is the founder of The Land is Ours, a peaceful campaign for the right of access to the countryside and its resources in the United Kingdom. He was presented with a United Nations Global 500 Award for outstanding environmental achievement by Nelson Mandela.

If you're one of the many people who feel increasingly disenfranchised by the British political system and that New Labour is the same old, repressive, Tory/big business bullshit under a different name, then this is likely to be the most uplifting and empowering book you'll read in a long time.