I bought this book on a war autumn day in the Marx museum and home in Trier many years ago.
I was in Trier to attend a week-long seminar on Data Protection, but having arrived early, I took advantage of the nice weather and the fact that my hotel room was not yet ready and went for a stroll.
I found Karl Marx’s museum and home, and in the bookshop, a book that would have been a faithful companion during the trip and on many occasions since then. It is a book I vehemently recommend, a mandatory read for all those who think communism means people like to eat boiled potatoes day in and day out.
Engels's story and life are described exquisitely, as are his gastronomic appetite, love for Champagne, and good conversations.
One of us. Clearly.
“The concept of a socialist society as a realm of equality is a one-sided French concept,” he said. Instead, Engels believed in cascading the pleasures of life – food, sex, drink, culture, travel, even fox-hunting – across all classes.
Socialism should not be a never-ending Labour Party meeting but a life of enjoyment. The real challenge of living in Manchester was that he could find no “single opportunity to make use of my acknowledged gift for mixing a lobster salad”1