1. John Sommerfield was a British writer and left-wing activist known for his influential novel May Day, which fictionalised a Communist upheaval in 1930s London.
10 Facts About John Sommerfield
1. 2.
John Sommerfield later served in the Royal Air Force in World War II.
3.
John Sommerfield appears to have joined the Communist Party in the early 1930s and it was a major part of his life for the following quarter-of-a-century.
4.
John Sommerfield wrote columns for several Communist periodicals, including the Daily Worker, and was active in the Communist Party Writers' Group.
5.
In 1937 John Sommerfield published Volunteer in Spain, which was an account of his time in Spain.
6.
Malcolm Lowry, a close friend of John Sommerfield's, counted him as an important influence, and dedicated his poem Song About Madrid, Useful Any Time to him and Julian Bell.
7.
The Communist Party asked John Sommerfield to write a manual about how to organise a rent strike.
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Malcolm Lowry 8.
John Sommerfield wrote a short story for this purpose instead which was published cheaply as a pamphlet and sold in tens of thousands.
9.
John Sommerfield was active in the Mass Observation project and took the lead in the research, largely in Bolton, for The Pub and the People.
10.
John Sommerfield married twice and had a son, Peter, by his first wife.