Eric Huntley obituary
Activist and co-founder of Bogle-L’Ouverture, one of the most important black publishing houses in BritainEric Huntley, who has died aged 96, was the co-founder with his wife, Jessica, of the...
By Yvonne Singh · The Guardian Culture
Activist and co-founder of Bogle-L’Ouverture, one of the most important black publishing houses in Britain Eric Huntley, who has died aged 96, was the co-founder with his wife, Jessica , of the radical publishing house Bogle L’Ouverture, set up in London in 1968 to showcase black writing talent. Initially run on a printing press in their west London living room, the venture soon outgrew those makeshift premises, and in 1975 became the Bogle L’Ouverture bookshop, which established itself as a community hub and informal advice centre as well as a place to buy books from outside the mainstream. Among the authors championed by Bogle L’Ouverture were Linton Kwesi Johnson, Valerie Bloom, Lemn Sissay, Beryl Gilroy and Donald Hinds , while the Huntleys also became involved in creating the International Book Fair of Radical and Third World Books , which ran from 1982 to 1995, uniting and amplifying the thoughts of black intellectuals, creatives and activists across continents. Continue reading...