ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
Latest editorial
Guernica, 85 years on
JENNY FARRELL examines the detailed symbolism within Picasso's iconic anti-war and anti-fascist painting
RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers
BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions
MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
THERE are a handful of pictures that may be said to be almost universally known. They include Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, Edvard Munch’s The Scream and Picasso’s Guernica. The last was painted eight five years ago this month.
On April 26, 1937, the small Basque town of Guernica was annihilated by German bombers.
The Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, long based in France, heard of this act of terror on April 28 and began initial sketches in response to this atrocity on May 1. It became the painting Guernica.
Similar stories
![Relaxing at the camp outside Southampton [Pic: Marx Memorial Library]](https://morningstaronline.co.uk/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2026-07/A3_E_22_Basque_Refugee_Camp_Southampton_1937042.jpg.webp?itok=2UAtKdNN)
The evacuation of thousands of Basque children became a landmark act of compassion during the Spanish civil war, write SIMON MARTINEZ and MANUEL MORENO
SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective
CJ ATKINS commemorates one of the most dramatic moments in working-class history
KEVIN DONNELLY accepts the invitation to think speculatively in contemplation of representations of people of African descent in our cultural heritage