Now having just completed "Class Act," I found the book a fine biography, informative, thoroughly documented, good photos, an overall good read.

This is a "warts and all" book. MacColl's detractors will find grist for their mean spirited mills, and thos who admire his achievements will gain some new insights. If nothing else, this book demonstrates that MacColl's flaws, unlike our own, have become magnified in light of his outstanding accomplishments.

The book doesn't have answers for all the questions on this thread. It is a study of MacColl's "Cultural and Political Life." And while his WW II activities are well documented, the reasons are not. I would tend to look to a line in one of his songs;

"But I'd sooner never travelled if the only way to see
The world was through the battlesights of a Mark IV 303."

As to Winger's question about songwriting during this period, there was virtually none. He was still immersed in theatre. Before "Dirty Old Town," c. 1950, the only songs he'd penned were "The Manchester Rambler," his reworking of "Jamie Foyers," and "Browned Off."

While many condider MacColl to be a song writer and revival singer, at the time he met Alan Lomax, he was a source singer, having abosorbed his songs from his parents and the Scottish community of Salford.

Buy the book or borrow it, but read this book. Then come back for further discussion - Tom Hall