Natasha Walter and Catherine Taylor: Protest Writing

When Natasha (Living Dolls, New Feminism) began to search back through her mother’s history, she began to understand how her life led to death by her own hand. Having been brought up to be a conventional young woman, her mother chose to take huge risks and even break the law for her beliefs in the nuclear disarmament movement of the 1960s. Further back, her grandfather was imprisoned for being part of the anti-Nazi resistance in 1930s Germany. She talks to Catherine Taylor (The Stirrings) whose own memoir is set against the backdrop of the miners’ strike. They discuss why it’s always important to stand up for your beliefs and why writing honestly about the pitfalls as well as the triumphs of resistance is the only way to both accurately record history and remain inspired to keep resisting.