Poetry review – TRANSITIONS: Norbert Hirschhorn responds to Marilyn Hacker’s new collection by reflecting on the sonnet form that she handles so very well
Red Beard. Review by Alan Price, Over many years I have watched Red Beard three times and each time I felt elated and drained by its power. Yet since 1965, two annoying descriptions are hung round its neck: “soap opera” is pitted, as if to ward off sentimentality, with “humanist.” Both terms can be used to damn a work of art.
Poetry review – A GRAIN OF TRUTH : Colin Carberry admires Celia de Freine’s bilingual collection exploring the plight of the disadvantaged and marginalised
Poetry review – NO MORE ANIMAL POEMS: Oz Hardwick relishes the ambiguity – both playful and ominous – in this imaginative collection by Marc Vincenz
Poetry review – THE LAST ONE PICKED: D A Prince recognizes how far Stuart Handysides has developed his craft and experience before producing a first collection
A Sunday of Sondheim. Review by Barbara Lewis. Max Eade, nominally the director, who tells us he is really just the organiser, says he wanted this small-scale performance in the intimate space of the Union Theatre to be imperfect; a matter of “scribbles on a page”.
A Red that Sings. Review by Barbara Lewis. “The red that sings” is a phrase rooted in the intellectual atmosphere of the 19th-century when scientists first grappled with the concept of synaesthesia, and poets and painters seized on it as a heightened response to the anxiety and excitement of breathless social change.
Poetry review – CONVERSATIONS WITH A MACHINE : Michael Bartholomew-Biggs reviews a slim collection by Ruth Irwin that seeks to engage with big questions
Van Dyck, The European. Review by Barbara Lewis. A lack of evidence means art historians can only speculate about the relationship between Peter Paul Rubens and his most gifted pupil Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641).
Poetry review — CONVERSATIONS WITH MAGIC STONES: Sue Wallace-Shaddad admires how the techniques of writing and sculpture are related in Vivienne Tregenza’s collection inspired by the life & work of Barbara Hepworth
SEVEN STORIES: Emma Storr enjoys a selection of tales by Merryn Williams which touch on the darker side of human nature
HERE’S WHERE WE GET OFF: Charles Rammelkamp reviews a collection of microfictions by Guy Biederman
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • added recently on London Grip, books, fiction, year 2026