STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
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Your first time in the north
PAUL FARMER recommends the perplexing realism of a working-class writer whose books are about far more than they appear to be
Creating a mass-ownership New Standard Sailing Dinghy, or not?
[Pic: MAEllis/CC]
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
JAN WOOLF relishes an extensive history of our long relationship to trees in Britain that underlines the current emergency
DIANE WATT argues that while evidence of sex is not there, a 16th‑century lesbian poet could be Scotland’s answer to Gentleman Jack
The Encouragement of Others
Magnus Mills, Quoqs, £9.99
MAGNUS MILLS is on a roll. The Encouragement of Others is one of his finest books.
Mills is a working man, and he writes about workers. His first novel, The Restraint of Beasts, was about labourers who erect fences; The Scheme for Full Employment was about delivery vans; and The Maintenance of Headway was about bus drivers. These are all jobs Mills has done himself and the worlds he makes of them are enclosed and entire. But his books are about far more than they appear to be.
Or perhaps they aren’t.
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