1907 - Revolutionaries in London with Stephen May

Award-winning novelist Stephen May discusses the background to the fascinating blend of fact and fiction behind his book Sell Us The Rope. This describes the weeks Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg spent in Hackney in 1907.

In 1907 29 year old Joseph Stalin - the man responsible for the bank robberies that financed the Bolsheviks - the 5th Congress of the Russian Communist Party. Stalin sought to establish alliances within the Left of the party while struggling to shake off his impoverished violent past and step into a future that would eventually make him one of the world's most infamous dictators. Full of fascinating historical gems - and taking place amid landmarks you'll recognise, Sell Us The Rope is a gritty, immersive work that takes us right into the political ferment that was the East End of the time.