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Mike Cole, professor in education, University of East London, is reading Paul Warmington’s Black British Intellectuals and Education (Routledge, 2014). “An informative summary of the contribution of ‘black’ (used in an umbrella sense) intellectuals to anti-racist struggle. However, in this era of austerity/immiseration capitalism, critical race theory (his usual theoretical framework) cannot explain the intensification of the application of the ‘race card’; and for the record, I believe he is wrong to say that my work rejects the notion that racism is non-aberrational.”

Liz Gloyn, lecturer in Classics, Royal Holloway, University of London, is reading Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (Vintage Children’s Classics, 2013). “I’m catching up on a childhood classic that I didn’t encounter in my prolific adolescent reading. The book follows Anne’s youth from her accidental adoption by siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert as she grows into a talented young woman. I’m fuming that she gives up a college scholarship in the final pages, but am told I must read the sequels…”

Gareth A. Jones, professor of urban geography at the London School of Economics, is reading Popular Representations of Development: Insights from Novels, Films, Television and Social Media (Routledge, 2013), edited by David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers and Michael Woolcock. “Accounts of development and poverty are predominantly academic and policy-oriented. This book focuses instead on popular representations found in novels, films, television and social media, highlighting their complexity and nuance, and advocating that we take them more seriously. Reading this book should, at the very least, make academics feel less guilty about reading novels and watching films!”

Roger Morgan, formerly professor of political science, European University Institute, Florence, is reading David Owen’s The Hidden Perspective: The Military Conversations, 1906-1914 (Haus, 2014). “In this hard-hitting polemic, the former foreign secretary castigates his predecessor Edward Grey for authorising Anglo-French military planning talks without informing either Parliament or even the Cabinet. Owen argues that Grey should either have resigned or been impeached over this deception, and insists that Tony Blair should expect serious consequences from his comparable pre-Iraq war commitments to Washington.”

R. C. Richardson, emeritus professor of history, University of Winchester, has been reading Thomas Sharp’s Town Planning (Penguin, 1940). “A vigorously argued contribution to the wartime debate on reconstruction. With sideways glances at Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Sharp boldly pressed for a national, forward-looking, democracy-serving strategy that would avoid the mess and muddle that followed 1918, confront urban and suburban monotony and blight, embrace architectural innovation and redefine the relationship between town and country.”