GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
Latest editorial
'Contemporary Irish poetry is very brave when it comes to kicking long-dead Archbishops'
But, says KEVIN HIGGINS, a reactionary literary establishment keeps the door very firmly closed against poetry with a left perspective on contemporary life
ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT EXAMPLE: French poet Paul Eluard
[l'Humanite]
DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
IN THE course of my work as a poet, I regularly meet those strange creatures, the literary liberals. They ascribe to themselves every progressive and humane value, while at the same time apparently finding no place in their imaginations for even the possibility of a world not run in the interests of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Apple Inc.
They are the sort of people who, if they didn’t necessarily agree with her, would at least have understood where artist Tracy Emin was coming from when she called David Cameron’s coalition of 2010-15 “the best government... that we’ve ever had”.
Politically, Emin may be an ignoramus. But her incontinent mouth is useful in that it makes her spell out what others in the arts are only brave enough to occasionally think.
Similar stories
CHRIS MOSS joins the hunt in Argentina for the works of Poland’s most enigmatic exile
Gisele Pelicot said ‘shame must change sides.’ We may think we agree, but, argues LOUISE RAW, society still has some way to go
Two inspring books — that’s your New Year’s musing from me on January 2 2026
The creative imagination is a weapon against barbarism, writes KENNY COYLE, who is a keynote speaker at the Manifesto Press conference, Art in the Age of Degenerative Capitalism, tomorrow at the Marx Memorial Library & Workers School in London