RICHARD WORTH relishes the fleeting moment and sense of flow of the late, great saxophonist
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‘It’s got to be Jeremy’
In this extract from his new book The Candidate: Jeremy Corbyn’s Improbable Path to Power, ALEX NUNNS reveals how in the early stages of the 2015 Labour leadership contest the left stumbled upon the unlikely figure of Corbyn to be its standard bearer
DENNIS BROE notes the thin, unfunny and apolitical quality of the gruel dished up by the US networks and studios for mass consumption
BARBARA BOSWELL remembers South African poet, storyteller, publisher, editor and activist Diana Ferrus (1953-2026)
HELEN VASSALLO recommends a gripping Argentinian crime story about gender violence and the weaponisation of religion
New releases from Steve Swallow, Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts, and Ady Johnson
When the ravages of Alzheimer’s leave an elderly woman marooned in painful memories of October 1950, her grandchild comes up with a creative strategy.
New releases from Simone White, Brass Funkeys, and Souad Massi
BY THE third week of May 2015 a sense of ferment began to overtake those on the Labour left who thought it was essential to stand a candidate for leader but who had so far failed to find one.
The clock was ticking down to the deadline of June 15, by which time any candidate would need to gather the nominations of 35 MPs to go forward into the race.
Behind the scenes, frantic calls flew back and forth. “We started thinking about almost anyone,” recalls Jon Lansman, a lynchpin of the Labour left. “We felt you couldn’t really have anyone who was new but we thought about Keir Starmer [a new MP but former director of public prosecutions]. We even thought about Angela Eagle at one point — could we back Angela? Would she stand? I made a call. I urged her to stand on the basis that she’d be better than the others. With hindsight that was probably not so. We were desperate.”
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