Gathering Shards
A spiritual autobiography by Murray Bodo turns out to be an unexpectedly down-to-earth story
Launch of Blue Door Publishing
London Grip is pleased to help break the news of a new publishing venture…
L-E-V OCD LOVE, Sadlers Wells. Review by Julia Pascal.
Sharon Eyal danced with Israel’s famous Bathsheva Dance company and was House Choreographer from 2005-2012. It is her genius that is at the source of this compulsive modern ballet which publicises itself as being ‘about love out of sync’.
The Pianist of Willesden Lane, St. James Theatre, London. Review by Barbara Lewis.
After the trauma of Kristallnacht in November 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was persuaded to agree that thousands of Jewish children come to Britain through a rescue effort that became known as the Kindertransport. It’s a story that has resonated powerfully ever since and has taken on a new, reproachful force in a Brexit Britain deeply suspicious of refugees and intent on putting its own narrow self-interest first.
London Grip Poetry Review – Walter
A short collection by Amy Schreibman Walter deals evocatively with women experiencing various kinds of longing: but Emma Lee wonders whether the voice is sometimes too passive
A Dangerous Urge. Jane McChrystal.
In his essay Blood in the Matzos, Anthony Burgess called our need to classify art “a dangerous urge”. Burgess viewed the classifying urge as innate, but I believe people yield to it under the pressure to build careers, make money and forge reputations.
Four American Poets
Richard Caldwell enthuses, to varying degrees, about the four American poets on show in a new anthology edited by Anthony Costello
London Grip Poetry Review – Price
Graham Hardie considers Alan Price’s chapbook of prose poems inspired by the work of Walter Benjamin
Plum Busby Duo, Saturday 24th September
Plum Busby Duo. Tracy Coleman with Stuart Hall, Saturday 24th September, at Tracy’s place, London Bridge.
‘Home Chat’ by Noel Coward. Review by Barbara Lewis.
It’s an indictment of society when the well-born, well-bred and very carefully brought-up are willing to condemn those they supposedly love on circumstantial evidence. As a homosexual living in times that brushed him aside as a confirmed bachelor, Noel Coward more than many must have felt the urge to scandalise the hypocrites drinking tea from china cups who passed for the civilised classes.
London Grip Poetry Review- Black
A Route Map of Liquid Thought: Brian Docherty takes a look into and around Linda Black’s latest collection
London Grip Poetry Review – Valentine
Graham Hardie admires the poetic agility with which Ruth Valentine explores some dark themes.