Harry's Last Stand
How the World My Generation Built Is Falling Down, and What We Can Do to Save It
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Harry's Last Stand
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Ric Jerrom
About this listen
As one of the last remaining survivors of the Great Depression and the Second World War, I will not go gently into that good night. I want to tell you what the world looks like through my eyes, so you can help change it....
In November 2013, 91-year-old Yorkshireman, RAF veteran, and ex-carpet salesman Harry Leslie Smith’s Guardian article – "This year, I will wear a poppy for the last time" – was shared almost 60,000 times on Facebook and started a huge debate about the state of society.
Now he brings his unique perspective to bear on NHS cutbacks, benefits policy, political corruption, food poverty, the cost of education – and much more. From the deprivation of 1930s Barnsley and the terror of war to the creation of our welfare state, Harry has experienced how a great civilisation can rise from the rubble. But at the end of his life, he fears how easily it is being eroded.
Harry’s Last Stand is a lyrical, searing modern invective that shows what the past can teach us and how the future is ours for the taking.
©2014 Harry Leslie Smith (P)2015 Audible, LtdListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"Smith's unwavering will to turn things around makes for inspirational reading." ( Big Issue North)
"Mr Smith's is a rousing, earthy writing that's part Tony Harrison, part Dennis Skinner." (NudgeMeNow.com)
"This hymn of wrath against the toxic nexus of money and power in austerity UK from a Bradford pauper's son, excommunicated from the Catholic church for marrying an 'enemy' woman in post-war Germany, is a compelling life-verdict." (Paul Routledge, The Tablet)
Would highly recommend this book to anyone. I also intend to get a copy for my teenage daughter to read as well.
A remarkable book
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Read this book before the next election.
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What made the experience of listening to Harry's Last Stand the most enjoyable?
its in the headline?What other book might you compare Harry's Last Stand to, and why?
not sureHave you listened to any of Ric Jerrom’s other performances? How does this one compare?
no so don't knowIf you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
UnfairAny additional comments?
probably not enough people care to read itgreat book great guy
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What did you like most about Harry's Last Stand?
The book reflects my opinions about the state of the country at the moment. How the government, press barons and industrialist have blamed the current situation on the Blair/Brown Labour government overspending and not on the financial institutions who caused a global economic crash. They've used this to asset strip our country, and sell off the family jewels and begin the privatisation of the NHS. Harry uses his own personal experiences of his life before the Welfare State and the good that the WS as done for him and his family.What did you like best about this story?
The flashbacks to Harry's pathetic childhood and his post war experiences in Berlin.Which character – as performed by Ric Jerrom – was your favourite?
Jerrom gets across the curmudgeonly, indignation of a frustrated man, who in his lifetime has seen abject poverty and the cruelty of the establishment, of how it improved for many and how he sees as the inevitable return to a harsh world, where meritocracy and egalitarianism hold no place.Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
It made me cry in the description of his sister's tragic death. But in the end the book is filled with hope that we can halt the slide back to a Dickensian world. (Granted this was published before the last General Election.)Any additional comments?
If you are a conservative voter, this book will do nothing for you at all. But if you have an ounce of fairness in you, or, you have young children and you are worried about the condition of the world they are growing into, trapped paying exorbitantly high rents, struggling to find a job or in a zero hour contract, in the wrong postcode for a certain lifesaving drug, this book is definitely for you. Its Owen Jones with real life experiences!Part state of the nation, part social history.
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Harry's last stand
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