Left Book Club

The Left Book Club was a publishing group that exerted a strong socialist influence in the United Kingdom from 1936 to 1948, and is credited with helping the Labour Party to win its landslide victory of 1945. Pioneered by Victor Gollancz, it issued a monthly book choice, restricted to members only, as well as a newsletter that acquired the status of a major political magazine. It also held an annual rally. Membership peaked at 57,000, but after the Soviet-Nazi non-aggression pact of 1939, it disowned its large communist element, and years of paper-rationing led to further decline. It ceased publishing in 1948.