Teatro Antica di Taormina. Review by Barbara Lewis. For more than two millennia, Taormina on Sicily’s eastern coast has laid claim to what you could say is the world’s most dramatic theatre in terms of its natural setting between Mount Etna and the sparkling Ionian Sea.
history
Poetry review – LANDSCAPE WITH MINES: Peter Ualrig Kennedy is moved by the strength and immediacy of Anna Bowles’ poetry in this impressive pamphlet.
Poetry review – CONSTRUCTING A WITCH: Nick Cooke is impressed by Helen Ivory’s energetic and zealously defiant poems
Unseen Photography from the 19th Century. Review by Barbara Lewis. Belgium, which declared independence in 1830, became a forerunner in photographic identification and is home to the oldest preserved mugshots, dating from 1843. As well as using photography to catch criminals, Belgium led the way in putting the technique to arguably criminal uses, including pornography and the wider abuse of power, which sadly finds an echo in today’s AI image manipulation.
Poetry review – BRIDGING TIME 1944-2024: Thomas Ovans is moved and intrigued by Patricia Townsend’s sonnet sequence incorporating and responding to wartime letters from her father.
A PHYSICAL EDUCATION: John Lucas considers Jonathan Taylor’s perceptive and accessible discussion of the causes and consequences of authorised cruelty in schools and beyond
Poetry review – IMPERFECT BEGINNINGS: Anne Ryland is touched by the powerful and painful poetry in this collection by Viv Fogel
Poetry review – AGAIN BEHOLD THE STARS: Emma Storr admires a prize-winning historical sequence by Alex Josephy
Poetry review – HAIL SISTERS OF THE REVOLUTION: Kelly Davis admires Caroline Gilfillan’s tribute to a 1970s band of freedom fighters
Poetry review – LEARNING FINITY: Clare Morris admires the use of memory and story in these poems by Deborah Harvey
Archaeological Museum of Heraklion and Palace of Knossos. By Barbara Lewis. Regarded as the first advanced civilisation in Europe, Minoan Crete dated from around 3000 BC until around 1100 BC, preceding ancient Greece.
Poetry review – FROM THE EAST: Peter Ualrig Kennedy is impressed by the clever cadences of John Greening’s poetry in this volume
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, ecology, history, poetry reviews, year 2024