John Berger in Hackney: The origins of the Writers & Readers Publishing Co-operative

John Berger, one of Europe’s most influential post-war writers and intellectuals was born at 1 Filey Avenue, Stoke Newington on 5 November 1926. In his late 40s he became close friends with Glenn Thompson, the black American draft-resister & youth worker who founded Centerprise, the pioneering Hackney radical bookshop & community centre in 1971. When Glenn died in 2001, it was Berger who wrote his Guardian obituary. When Glenn left Centerprise in 1974 to establish the Writers & Readers Publishing Co-operative - based on the Hackney project’s experience in promoting young writers through community-based publishing – he asked John Berger, one of Glenn’s keenest supporters, to join him in that venture. In the centenary year of John Berger’s birth, writer Ken Worpole, who was involved in the early days of both projects, will talk about Berger’s life and work, with particular reference to his early life and political attachments.