The 21 new poems in Wish by Maggie Brookes-Butt are a grandparent’s love song, addressed to her descendants. They are designed to be read when the children grow up. The volume of new and selected poems is written in a simple style that wears its heart on its sleeve but it is often delightful and deeper […]
Grandparent’s Love Song Read More »
There is nothing more beastly than people who shudder with distaste or squeamishness at contact with animals. This ironically-titled book by Keggie Carew, offering “A New History of the Animals and Us” is a cry from the heart of a nature lover. The author runs a small nature reserve in Wiltshire. She has previously won
Beastly is Beautiful Read More »
When the rejuvenated scholar Faust has slept with Helen of Troy, via the black magic arts of Mephistopheles, the vision fades and he finds himself on a high rugged peak. He marvels at the spectacle of sun-irradiated clouds, and imagines a luscious female form on softest bedding: “I see it! It is like Juno, Leda,
How Faust Was Saved Read More »
Bob Dylan is one of the finest ever writers of protest songs, about the oppression of poor people, young people, black people in the militarist, capitalist hustle of the USA. But what about his portrayal of suffocating or fickle women? When he sings in The Gates of Eden: “Of war and peace the truth just
Bob Dylan’s World of Fickle Women Read More »
Goethe’s character Faust is a potent symbol of Everyman in our modern hi-tech wonderland. If we have the money, we can have almost anything we desire delivered to our door the next day. Does that make us happy? Does that make us good? Does that make our world safe? This may be the most eccentric
Goethe’s Faust, a Parable of Modern Techno Man Read More »
This a terrific film about a man who is not there. It won this year’s Palme d’Or for its tragi-comic depiction of a group of dissidents in Iran. It was shot secretly by the director Jafar Panahi, who was only released from his latest spell in prison after a hunger strike. A man is driving
Secret Police and their Blindfolded Victims Read More »
Some things are defined by the absence or silence around them. In The Histories by US artist Kerry James Marshall at the Royal Academy, we enter a giant visual world occupied solely by black figures. They are not angry or sad. They are just ordinary people, working out who they are and what they are
The Artist of Black Beauty and Reality Read More »
This film about the Arab Revolt in Palestine in 1936 is unlikely to gain a mass audience, but it very much deserves to be seen. It’s a major work that dramatises events before the Second World War when Britain was still in charge of the territory. Following the Balfour Declaration of 1917, Jews were starting
Seeds of the Middle East Conflict Read More »
Pressure on the BBC continues from Donald Trump and his allies in the large right-wing sector of our own media. But as the Open Britain campaign implies, this is an attack on the heart of British political culture. (See address of article:) https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#search/bbc+trump/FMfcgzQcqtkLKVPQTvwtcZPZTTdmFZMR If you had to define “British values”, the BBC would come near
Defending the BBC through Dangerous Times Read More »
I followed my usual practice of reading the contents first – and the introduction at the end. I am glad I postponed the personal intro, because this is a rare Christian book which can make good sense to people of any faith or none. In it the author describes her life experience through the lens
Seven Deadly Sins That Won’t Go Away Read More »
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