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{{short description|British doctor and libertarian socialist}}
{{EngvarB|date=April 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}}
{{Libertarian socialism sidebar|People}}
'''Christopher Agamemnon Pallis''' (2 December 1923 – 10 March 2005) was an Anglo-Greek [[neurologist]] and [[libertarian socialist]] intellectual. Under the [[pen name]]s '''Martin Grainger''' and '''Maurice Brinton''', he wrote and translated for the British group [[Solidarity (UK)|Solidarity]] from 1960 until the early 1980s. As a neurologist, he produced the accepted criteria for [[brainstem death]], and wrote the entry on death for ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''.<ref name="G05">{{cite news|author-first1=David |author-last1=Goodaway |author-link1=David Goodway |author-first2=Paul |author-last2=Lewis |url=https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,,1444577,00.html |title=Obituary: Christopher Pallis (Maurice Brinton): An irreverent critic of the Bolshevik revolution |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |location=London, England |date=24 March 2005}}</ref>

==Life==
Chris Pallis was born in [[Bombay]], [[British Raj]], to a prominent Anglo-Greek family,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Calne |first1=Donald |title=Christopher Agamemnon Pallis |url=https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/inspiring-physicians/christopher-agamemnon-pallis |publisher=Royal College of Physicians |access-date=17 December 2023}}</ref> "of whose intellectual achievements he was always extremely proud".<ref name="Goodway2011">{{cite book |author-first=David |author-last=Goodway |author-link=David Goodway |title=Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/anarchistseedsbe0000good/page/288/mode/2up |access-date=20 October 2012 |year=2011 |publisher=[[PM Press]] |location=Oakland, California |isbn=978-1-60486-221-8 |pages=288–308 |chapter=Christopher Pallis |title-link=Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward }}</ref> The poet [[Alexandros Pallis]] was a great-uncle, and so the writers [[Marietta Pallis]] and [[Marco Pallis]] were also relatives. His father Alex was general manager of the family firm of merchant bankers, [[Ralli Brothers]]; when he retired, he returned from India to settle in [[Switzerland]]. Educated there, Chris Pallis became fluent in French, English and Greek.<ref name="G05"/>

In 1940, the family managed to take the last boat out of France, and settled in England. Pallis went on to study medicine at [[Balliol College, Oxford]] in 1941. He joined the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]], but he was quickly expelled for criticising its policy on the [[Second World War]], and became a member of the [[Trotskyist]] [[Revolutionary Communist Party (1944-1949)|Revolutionary Communist Party]].<ref name=Goodway2011/>

For the next 20 years he combined a distinguished medical career<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7496/908 |title=Obituaries: Chris Pallis |journal=[[British Medical Journal]] |publisher=[[British Medical Association]] |location=London, England |date=16 April 2005|volume=330 |issue=7496 |page=908 |doi=10.1136/bmj.330.7496.908 |pmc=556175 |last1=Richmond |first1=C. }}</ref> under his real name with pseudonymous revolutionary socialist writing and translation. After he was outed for his use of the name Martin Grainger in such left-wing journals as the ''[[New Statesman]]'' he changed his pseudonym. Subsequently his boss, [[Christopher Booth]], defended him from further press criticism, saying that he was a fine neurologist entitled to his own political views.<ref name="Richmond">{{cite journal |author-last1=Richmond |author-first1=Caroline |title=Chris Pallis |journal=BMJ: British Medical Journal |date=16 April 2005 |volume=330 |issue=7496 |pages=908 |doi=10.1136/bmj.330.7496.908 |issn=0959-8138 |pmc=556175 }}</ref>

Pallis's published works include several eyewitness accounts of key moments in European left politics, such as the [[Belgian general strike of 1960–1961]], the [[May 1968 events in France]], and Portugal's [[Carnation Revolution]] in 1974–75; a substantial body of English translations of works by [[Cornelius Castoriadis]], the main thinker of the French group [[Socialisme ou Barbarie]]; and two short books of his own: ''The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control'' (1970) and ''The Irrational in Politics'' (1974), which is largely concerned with sexual politics.<ref name="G05"/>

==References==
{{reflist|22em}}

==Further reading==
*Brinton, Maurice (Goodway, David ed). ''For Workers' Power: The Selected Writings of Maurice Brinton''. [[AK Press]]. 2004. {{ISBN|1-904859-07-0}}

==External links==
*[http://www.marxists.org/archive/brinton/index.htm Maurice Brinton Archive]
*[http://libcom.org/tags/maurice-brinton Libertarian Communist Library Maurice Brinton Archive]
*[http://www.af-north.org/solidarity/solidarity.htm Pamphlets by the Solidarity-Group (and Maurice Brinton)]
*[http://www.thehobgoblin.co.uk/journal/h72005_GS_RC_Pallis.htm Two Appreciations of Chris Pallis aka Maurice Brinton]
* Paul Anderson, [https://libsoc.blogspot.com/2005/03/socialist-for-all-seasons-paul.html A Socialist for all Seasons], ''Gauche'', 25 September 2005

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pallis, Chris}}
[[Category:1923 births]]
[[Category:2005 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Mumbai]]
[[Category:British socialists]]
[[Category:British Marxists]]
[[Category:British people of Greek descent]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Great Britain members]]
[[Category:British Marxist writers]]
[[Category:Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1944) members]]
[[Category:Workers Revolutionary Party (UK) members]]
[[Category:Libertarian socialists]]
[[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Greek–English translators]]
[[Category:20th-century British translators]]

Chris Pallis - Revision history

Smasher at 03:01, 13 August 2025