If you want a gift with meaning, then Radical Tea Towels are for you! Each one features an inspirational design about radical history.

The four new designs we have in now are of Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, a map of the radical history of Britain, and a special design supporting Ukrainian refugees.

All the tea towels are 100% cotton and ethically made in the UK.

The Radical Tea Towel company was founded in 2011 by Bea, Tim, and Luke to honour Bea’s mother and her radical politics. Since then, they’ve grown and their tea towels have long been popular here at October Books.

Get yours in store now! Only £12.50

You can find out more about the Radical Tea Towel story here on their site.

Or watch this video:

Help Ukraine Tea Towel

Description from website:

We have produced this tea towel to raise money in support of Ukrainian refugees following the invasion by Russia in February 2022. The design is a reworking of a Spanish Civil War poster in support of the Republican cause which called on the world to "Help Spain". Here we have re-worded it to read "Help Ukraine". All the profits from this tea towel will be donated to Ukrainian refugee causes.

Audre Lorde tea towel

Description from the website:

Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet: that’s how Audre Lorde described herself. Born in February 1934, Lorde was also a feminist and civil rights activist whose work drew attention to the lived experience of oppression in a patriarchal, racist and homophobic society.

For liberation movements to succeed, she argued in her trail-blazing collection of essays Sister Outsider, they must not only seek to find common ground in the experience of oppression: they must also recognise and embrace difference. Too often, feminism in the United States had focused on white women, ignoring the very different experiences of black, gay, working-class and disabled women. To ignore these differences, Lorde argued, is to continue the process of marginalisation and erasure that drives patriarchal, racist ideology.

Lorde died from breast cancer in 1992, but throughout the 1990s her work continued to influence the development of third-wave feminism and intersectionality, highlighting the importance of race, class, age, illness, disability and sexuality to any truly inclusive feminist movement.

To this day, her legacy inspires writers and activists across the world. This tea towel celebrates that legacy.

Toni Morrison Tea Towel

Description from website:

"Love is not a gift. It is a diploma. A diploma conferring certain privileges: the privilege of expressing love and the privilege of receiving it."

Born in February 1931, Toni Morrison was an American novelist, professor and activist. Having come of age during the years of Jim Crow and racial segregation, Morrison’s work explores the prevalence of racism across the United States. Her first novel, 'The Bluest Eye', published in 1970 when Morrison was 39, tells the story of a young African-American girl who wishes she had blue eyes – a feature which she equates with the superior beauty of whiteness. Seventeen years later, Morrison published her most famous novel, 'Beloved', which focuses on a family of former slaves in the late 19th century.

By the 1990s, Morrison had become one of the most highly-acclaimed living American writers. She won nearly every major literary award there is: the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1977, the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She was even presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2012.

Despite the focus on racism and white supremacy, her work never gave up on the generative power of love and hope to change the world – a legacy that we’re celebrating in this tea towel!

Radical Map of Britain

Description from Website:

British history is traditionally mapped out in terms of kings and queens, but our Radical Britain Map tea towel turns that idea on its head - it maps out the steps taken by the common people towards a better, fairer world. From Medieval rebellions to 19th century uprisings to 20th century strikes and environmental stand-offs, the map covers the arc of British history seen from the viewpoint of the working classes. Here's one for the hard-working kitchen. Or maybe hanging on the school history department wall?