This Way to the Revolution

A Memoir

Erin Pizzey

• Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9780720615234
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: Politics & International Relations

First full biography of an international figure, recently in the news after her successful libel case against Andrew Marry, who described her as a terrorist in The Making of Modern Britain
Internationally famous for starting one of the first women's refuges in the modern world, Erin Pizzey is a controversial but hugely-respected activist with enemies on the left and the right, a pioneering figure in the maelstrom of seventies politics, and a key witness of the era. Here, she tells her story in full for the first time. The daughter of a diplomat, Erin Pizzey was born in China in 1939. One of her formative experiences was seeing her parents and brother being put under house arrest by the Maoists in 1949. This instilled a hatred of totalitarian regimes and for a short time Pizzey even worked for MI6 in Hong Kong. Once relocated in the UK, Pizzey was soon swept up by sixties radicalism and the early days of the emerging Women's Liberation Movement. Opening a small community center for maltreated women in Chiswick in 1971 was to bring Pizzey to the front line of what was becoming a national issue in a time when feminists were still treated with hostility and derision by right-wing figures, but also when left-wing radicals scorned anyone, like Pizzey, who put humanity before ideology. By the mid-1970s, Pizzey found herself under bomb threat and picketed by feminists for allowing men to staff refuges: this led to a long exile from the UK where she kept up her activities and achieved international recognition, while also reinventing herself as a best-selling writer. Erin Pizzey's life and trials have been unique; her story is a compelling one, vital to any understanding of a more revolutionary age and burning issues that still resonate today.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• Note on the Text and Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• In the Beginning 1
• This Way to the Revolution 2
• Sisterhood Is Powerful 3
• Taking on the Sisterhood 4
• The Sisterhood Fights Back 5
• Protests and Bombs 6
• Goodbye to the Sisterhood 7
• Making a Dream Come True 8
• Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher 9
• Chiswick Women’s Aid Opens Its Doors 10
• Dreams Become Nightmares 11
• Somewhere to Go 12
• The Cycle of Violence 13
• Love – or Addiction? 14
• Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear 15
• Charity or Empire? 16
• Men Can Be Victims, Too 17
• Parting of the Ways 18
• Sisters Under the Skin 19
• The Bam Bam Club 20
• Pleasure or Pain? 21
• Acton Magistrates’ Court 22
• There Are No Tidy Solutions 23
• The Great and the Good Come on Board 24
• ‘The More You Beat Them the Better They Be’ 25
• Lunch on Capitol Hill 26
• Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb 27
• Sup with the Devil with a Long Spoon 28
• My Refuge Sutton Courtenay 29
• The Boys’ House 30
• Grandma 31
• The Palm Court Hotel 32
• Doing Well by Doing Good 33
• The House of Lords’ Decision 34
• Jenny Johnson Makes History 35
• Danny Flies In 36
• Back to the Magistrates’ Court 37
• Against Judge’s Orders 38
• Chiswick Children Go to Greece 39
• Contempt of Court 40
• Running Round the Bend 41
• Goodbye to the Refuge 42
• Afterword
• Index
• Copyright
• Back Cover