From Sarah Irving, one of the three editors of the Revolutionary Lives series:

Nearly seven years ago, I wrote to David Castle, one of the commissioning editors at Pluto Press, suggesting a biography of Leila Khaled. I actually asked him if he thought it would be of interest to another publisher, with which Pluto used to have a relationship. “I’d rather you spoke to us!”, he wrote, and the seeds of the Revolutionary Lives series were sown.
It feels like a long time since then, and a lot of planning, shaping, negotiation and probably prevarication have gone on since. Seeking political broadness and balance, we brought Brian Doherty of Keele University and Paul LeBlanc of LaRoche College on board as fellow editors, and have gone on to develop what we think is an exciting list of planned publications. Three of them are now in the public domain – Jean-Paul Marat by Clifford Conner, the forthcoming title on Gerrard Winstanley by John Gurney, and my own biography of Leila Khaled. I can’t let any of the names for 2013 and beyond out – yet – but rest assured they cover a broad sweep of issues, continents and eras. We’re bringing together a wonderful group of authors from around the world, from academic, activist and journalistic backgrounds. Finally seeing it all come together is very exciting.