In the final week of our crowdfund to relaunch Spitalfields Life Books, let me introduce the authors of the three books speaking in their own words.

THANKYOU to the 164 people who have contributed so far. With your help, I am hoping we can create a snowball effect in the next seven days to reach our target by next Saturday 14th October.

Please spread the word through your social media, and to friends, family and work colleagues. Consider supporting us as a patron and receive a signed fine art print by Doreen Fletcher, signed photographic prints by David Hoffman and Sarah Ainslie, plus an inscribed copy of my forthcoming book.

I believe in the primacy of books because – even if the web gets wiped out tomorrow – they will endure. Publishing is not an easy task, yet I am passionate to do it when I find stories that I want to cherish, that I know people will love, and that I believe deserve to be dignified in our time and for posterity.

Each of the new books I want to publish is a witness of our times and I am publishing them so you can have copies and we can share them with everyone, and they can be a legacy and record of our era.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR CROWDFUND PAGE & CONTRIBUTE

Photographer David Hoffman outside Fieldgate Mansions in Whitechapel where he squatted in the seventies and eighties, while documenting the life of the people around him.

“The old East End was disappearing as I took these photographs, being able to bring back a glimpse of its spirit in this book means a lot to me.” David  Hoffman

Artist Tessa Hunkin at the pavilion on Hackney Downs which she and Hackney Mosaic Project have turned into a landmark with an epic  mosaic of wild creatures.

“A beautiful book about Hackney Mosaic Project will be the best reward for all the people who have worked on the mosaics, bringing their achievement to a wider public and giving them the recognition they so well deserve.” Tessa Hunkin

Photographer Sarah Ainslie in her studio in Bethnal Green explaining why she has chosen to take portraits of women at work in the East End over the past thirty years.

“It means so much to me and will be an important recognition of all the women I have photographed over the years for this book to be published by Spitalfields Life Books, a perfect home for it.” Sarah Ainslie

Films by Lucinda Douglas Menzies