New Era Books and Handicrafts

New Era Books and Handicrafts specialised in Marxism-Leninism, anti-Imperialism, third-world issues, and books from China. With a stock of around 2,000 titles, the bookshop also offered Chinese handicrafts.

New Era Books and Handicrafts began its journey in Bath as a distributor of Chinese publications before moving to Cambridge and eventually settling in London in 1974.

The bookshop managed to survive primarily through its wholesale business, and from around 1976 to 1987, it was run on a voluntary basis by Betty Paterson.

Betty, a former member of the Communist Party of Great Britain who supported China during the Sino-Soviet split, became a cornerstone of the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU) and later the Communist Federation of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) (CFB (ML)).

Betty Paterson's dedication to the bookshop was remarkable.

As described in an obituary in Class Struggle (February 1990), "Betty would arrive early, work until one o’clock, take off exactly half an hour for a pork pie, an apple, a cup of coffee and a brief read, then get back to work until six."

This tireless effort kept New Era Books operational and focused on its mission.

Sources:

Radical Bookshops Listing, Radical Bookshop History Project (November 2023) [Available online here, accessed 23.06.2025]

The Radical Bookseller, No. 67, 1990; No. 75, 1991