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Welcome

Earth Island Books is an independent book publisher. 

 

We work with a punk rock ethic which has resulted in a varied catalogue of wonderful titles on alternative subjects.


We publish genre defining books and for us,
quality is more important than quantity.


We are incredibly proud of our publications 
and of the authors with whom we work. 


Working alongside Engineer Records, an independent, alternative record label with over 400 rocking releases,

Earth Island Books has produced some compelling reads ranging from fiction to music to history. There's some really exciting new titles lined up. Take a look, get in touch!

A COUNTRY FIT FOR HEROES
DIY PUNK IN EIGHTIES BRITAIN

By Ian Glasper
In our store now!
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Featured Author
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FEATURED AUTHoR
 
IAN GLASPER

Ian Glasper has been writing about punk since 1986, when he first started his own fanzine, ‘Little Things Please Little Minds’. Although it only ran for five issues, it helped him realise that he could indeed string a few words together, and gave him the confidence - in the early nineties - to start writing reviews for Record Collector, and a hardcore punk column for Terrorizer, the extreme music magazine that he contributed to for the next twenty years. 

 

In 2003, he got fed up of reviewing books about The Sex Pistols and The Clash, and decided to write a book about the particular era of the UK punk scene that was closest to his own heart, the second wave of punk during the early eighties - or UK82, as it became more affectionately known. The resultant ‘Burning Britain’ tome, published by Cherry Red in 2003 to much critical acclaim, flew off the shelves and is now widely regarded as the definitive document on that period. 

 

It was followed by ‘The Day the Country Died: a history of anarcho punk 1980 - 1984’ (2006), ‘Trapped in a Scene: UK hardcore 1985 - 1989’ (2009) and ‘Armed With Anger: how UK punk survived the nineties’ (2012). After then covering the last forty years of UK thrash metal with ‘Contract in Blood: a history of UK thrash metal’ (2018), Glasper joined the Earth Island Books family and gave us 2020’s celebrated ‘The Scene That Would Not Die: Twenty years of post-millennial punk in the UK’ and the epic Subhumans biography, ‘Silence is No Reaction: Forty years of Subhumans’ (2023). 

 

During the whole of this time, Glasper has also been busy writing, recording and touring with his own punk and hardcore bands, keeping his finger firmly on the pulse and staying in touch with the grass roots DIY element of the punk scene that so drew him to it in the first place. Since 1983, he has played bass for Ammonia 77, Decadence Within, Burnside, Stampin’ Ground, Human Error, Suicide Watch, Flux of Pink Indians, Freebase, Betrayed by Many, Thirty Six Strategies, Warwound and Sun of the Endless Night, and he currently plays with Bristol-based anarcho punks Zero Again, who released their debut album, ‘A Deep Appreciation of Suffering’, in 2023. 

 

A father of two, and a lifelong vegetarian/vegan, he claims to have a few more books about UK punk in him before he kicks the proverbial bucket.

Our Books
OUR Books

Raccoon Starts A Band

by Alex CF

The Fire Still Burns
: Music inspired by the post-punk message 

by David Gamage

Running at the edge of their world : The Suspect Device fanzine story

by Tony and Gaz Suspect

A Country Fit For Heroes : DIY Punk in Eighties Britain

by Ian Glasper

Three and a half minutes of fame

by Alex Boucher

The Resurrection of The Crazed by Paul Wainwright

Pig Iron

by Jim X Dodge

Nefarious Artists

by Welly Artcore

This is My Everything

by Chris Späth

The Dark Chronicles

by James Christie

My Punk Rock Life - The Photography of Marla Watson

Time For My Generation To DIE

by E.D. Evans

The Grief of Godless Games: Book One of The Godless Saga

by J.T. Audsley

Short Skirts and Whiskey Shots by Andrea Janov

Anarchist Atheist Punk Rock Teacher (A Memoir of Struggle, Grief, Philosophy and Hope)

by DaN McKee

The Revolution Will Be Televised

by Ray Stuart

Wisdom of the Punk Buddha

by Sam Marsh

Domesticated Vol. 2

by James Domestic

Domesticated

by James Domestic

Punks in the Willows

by Alex CF

Silence Is No Reaction:

Forty Years of Subhumans

by Ian Glasper

A Hardcore Heart: Adventures in a D.I.Y Scene

by David Gamage

Combat Ready

by Tim Satchwell

Terrorized: The Collected Interviews. Volume One

by Ian Glasper

Bugger Banksy

by Roy D Hacksaw

The Scene That Would Not Die

by Ian Glasper

Compression

by Tim Cundle

Theta House

by Jim X Dodge

Nimrod

by Ryan Roberts

Goudvishal

by Henk Wentink & Marcel Stol

Worst Eurovision Ever

by Roy D. Hacksaw

​

We Can Be The New Wind

by Alexandros Anesiadis

Mass Movement Volume 2

by Tim Cundle

What Would Garry Gygax Do?

by Tim Cundle

Ten Poets (Volume One)

by Various Authors

The Bite

by Jim X Dodge

Terrorized: The Collected Interviews. Volume Two

by Ian Glasper

Directions To The

Outskirts Of Town

by Welly Artcore

Mass Movement Volume 1

by Tim Cundle

Punk Faction

BHP '91 to '95

by David Gamage

Old West

A Fable of the

Gluttony of Understanding

By E D Evans

The Lost Sons Of Penycae

by Barry Jones

Domesticated Volume 3 

by James Domestic

Dear Smash Hits, We’re From Scotland!

by Alastair MacDonald Jackson

Down The Punk Rock Highway

35 Years of writing & interviews

By Jared Forman

Heavy Sounds in the West

by Hans Verbeke and Onno Hesselink

Mix Tapes and Photo Albums

by Andrea Janov

The Weight of Sin

By Ray Canham

The Humanity Trigger

by Mark Humanity

I Heartbreak The Ramones

By Nick Cooper

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IN THE PRESS

 Punk Faction, BHP '91 to '95

by David Gamage

​

"I love the DIY attitude and philosophy. I learned some new things about the world and most importantly, I was made to think"

VOODOO LYNN,

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