The bard celebrates two other fine practitioners of the art, and laments a lost brewer
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21st Century Poetry with Andy Croft: March 21, 2022
New collections from Olga Berggolts, Laura Fusco, Alison Brackenbury, Susan Darlington and Pnina Shinebourne
This right-wing conspiracy theory is used to justify the coercive measures against gender, race and labour rights that best serve capitalism, attests GAVIN O’TOOLE
KENNY MONROSE recommends a new exhibition that highlights the significance of Black British music
ANGUS REID is bowled over by an exuberant film about the making of Keith Jarrett’s legendary concert
MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O’CONNOR and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Savage House, Enzo, Madfabulous, and Erupcja
CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician
THE BLOCKADE SWALLOW (Smokestack Books, £8.99) is a selection of poems by the Soviet writer Olga Berggolts (1910-75), whose daily broadcasts on Leningrad radio during the Nazi blockade of the city became a symbol of the city’s refusal to surrender:
“The hungry, cruel, and dark winter / forty-one to forty-two will never be forgotten, / nor the fierce artillery fire, / nor the horrors of the bombing in forty-three. / The ground beneath the city lies pierced and broken. / Not a single life, comrades, will be forgotten.”
The book covers the years from 1925-60, bearing eloquent witness to some of the most tragic events of the 20th century — from the NEP years and the Terror (when Berggolts was imprisoned for two years), through war and blockade, to the disappointment of the post-war years:
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