How I've Tried to Change the World: By Walking Down the Middle of the Street Shouting

by Alexei Sayle

PRE-ORDER the new book from Alexei lifelong socialist, '80s comedy legend, bestselling writer and TikTok's favourite Marxist Explainer

So, this is the story I wish to tell, the story of the left and the world it tried and is trying to change, a struggle that I have been involved in my whole lifetime. . .

Born in working-class Liverpool in 1952 to devoted members of the British Communist Party, Alexei Sayle has spent a lifetime walking down the middle of the street shouting.

How I've Tried to Change the World is a memoir of his life on the Left, covering seven decades of social history told through key marches and rallies. From the demonstrations against the Vietnam War in 1969 and the first Miners' strike in 1974, to the demonstration against the 2003 Iraq invasion and the recent marches in support of Gaza, Sayle traces the enduring struggle for a better, fairer world. He explores Left ideas, why they matter and why it's still worth taking them seriously.

Along the way, we encounter The Other Alexei (a bitter, retired media studies lecturer from Clitheroe Polytechnic), his imaginary daughter Tanita, and learn how a Samurai philosophy called Bushidō can teach us how to behave at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Eye-wateringly funny, unexpectedly moving and unashamedly polemical, this is a one-of-a-kind chronicle of defiance and a story of one man's refusal to stay on the pavement.

Genres: Biography

208 pages, Hardcover

Published September 3, 2026

About the author

Alexei Sayle is an English stand-up comedian, actor, author and former recording artist, and was a central figure in the British alternative comedy movement in the 1980s.
Wikipedia

Reviews

[George Connor]

A smaller book than the preceding memoirs, but with a more explicitly political purpose. The prose is as readable as ever, and the anger as present as it was in the 80s.

What is perhaps new is the melancholy sense of frustration in the final chapters. It’s very affecting, and a true representation of how disspiriting, and exhausting, it is to be on the side of right when being governed by people in the wrong.

I’m not sure how you’d rate this kind of book in comparison with Sayle’s others. There are similarities of course, but the intent is sharper here. Regardless, it may well be his most important.

[Maya Panika]

Audiobook. Read by Alexei Sayle.