The Story of the Daily Worker - 80th Anniversary Edition

"Our critics were convinced that the Daily Worker was a Mad Hatter scheme, and we were somewhat amused and not in the least surprised when the Daily Herald rang us up on the first day of our appearance to know if it were true that the Daily Worker was not coming out again..."

In 1930 nine people gathered by candlelight in a freezing warehouse to try something that had never been done before: launch a socialist daily newspaper without wealthy backers, corporate advertisers or friends in high places.

Today the paper they founded, the Morning Star, is still on Britain's newsstands despite being banned, boycotted, burned out and all but bankrupted.

The paper's first editor, William Rust, tells the rollercoaster story of its early years - from the Great Depression to the end of World War II, via the Spanish Civil War, the Battle of Cable Street and enough brawls, bombs, crises and court cases to last several lifetimes.