CHRIS SEARLE welcomes a startling vision of contemporary Newport from a veteran photographer of the British working class
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Words of wisdom as old parrot speaks out
Andy Croft reviews some of the latest poetry
ANGUS REID recommends a very unusual documentary: a love story between two disillusioned journalists
In verse and polemic, the bard points out that he is a poet and musician, not a political party
MARIA DUARTE, JAMES WALSH and ANDY HEDGECOCK review The Invite, My Father’s Island, Nirvanna: the Band, the Show, the Movie, and Oh My Goodness!
PAUL DONOVAN is chilled by the contemporary resonance of Harper Lee’s coming of age tale amidst racism and white supremacy in this excellent production
GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends the unashamedly light-hearted escapism on offer in this stage version of the 1963 film
Dannie Abse has published over 30 books but few as satisfying or as enjoyable as Speak Old Parrot (Hutchinson, £15).
Now in his 90th year, Abse is naturally concerned with the passage of time: "profligate, I wasted time/- those yawning postponements on rainy days,/those paperhat hours of benign frivolity./Now time wastes me."
There are some great poems here about the comedy of ageing, like The Old Gods - Trident has lost his trident, Saturn has time on his hands and Bacchus has cirrhosis of the liver - and some fine poems about youth and memory like Cricket Bat, Moonbright and Sunbright.
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ALAN MORRISON recommends a consummate, heart-warming collection about a working-class upbringing in the industrial north-east
WILL STONE is impressed by a tour de force rendition of three decades’ worth of orchestral chamber pop
by Widad Nabi