Harry's Last Stand

'I am not an historian, but, at 91, I am history. This is how I see the world, and what I think we can do to change it.'

In November 2013 91-year old Yorkshireman RAF veteran and ex-carpet salesman Harry Leslie Smith’s Guardian article – ‘This year, I will wear a poppy for the last time’ – was shared almost 60,000 times on Facebook and started a huge debate.

‘The sepia tone of November’ he argued ‘has become blood-soaked with paper poppies festooning the lapels of our politicians, newsreaders and business leaders … I will no longer allow my obligation as a veteran to remember those who died in the great wars to be co-opted by current or former politicians to justify our folly in Iraq, our morally dubious war on terror and our elimination of one's right to privacy.’

Harry’s Last Stand brings his unique perspective to bear on NHS cutbacks, political corruption, food poverty, the lack of dignity in old age – and much more.

As someone who lived through the depression of the 1930s, the terror of the Second World War and the post-1945 consensus, Harry here presents a lyrical, searing modern invective that shows what the past can teach us, and how the future is ours for the taking.