Tommy Robinson’s book went to No 1 on Amazon. This is what I learned from the reviews | Zoe Williams
The far-right activist’s Manifesto briefly topped the website’s chart. It is gone now, but the comments make for worrying reading
It’s always tempting to self-soothe when the far right is on the march. Tommy Robinson’s new book, Manifesto: Free Speech, Real Democracy, Peaceful Disobedience, briefly topped Amazon’s bestseller chart last week – above Boris Johnson’s memoir, but also above Richard Osman, the fastest-selling hardback fiction author in British history, and Sally Rooney. Oh well, I thought. Maybe the book itself is not that bad? Maybe he’s turned over a new leaf?
It is that bad: I will not read it, because I will not buy it, because the day I put £24.99 or any fraction thereof into the pocket of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon is the day I’ve parted company with the material world. But here’s how it is described in the blurb: “For decades the political class have openly planned to replace the indigenous people of Europe and in Manifesto we focus on how they are doing this in the UK.”
Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
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