The Fall of Athens
John Lucas finds multiple reasons to recommend this memoir by Gail Holst-Warhaft which is studded through with her own accomplished poetry and also gives a shrewdly observant account of post-war Greek history
music
The Plotting
Thomas Ovans gets to grips with an intriguing novel by John Lucas which deals with a small-town jazz musician’s rather complicated love life.
NewBliss by Keith Donald, Brussels. Review by Barbara Lewis.
Northern Ireland’s permanent representation in Brussels periodically brings to the capital of Europe a sample of Northern Irish culture in a spirit of cross-cultural exchange that risks being disrupted in the event of a Brexit.
Anarchists, Beats and Dadaists
John Lucas is impressed by the depth and range of literary and musical knowledge displayed in a new collection of essays by Jim Burns
A Guilty Conscience & A Broken Heart
John Forth reflects on poetry in Loudon Wainwright’s lyrics
Orphee et Eurydice, La Monnaie/De Munt, Brussels – review by Barbara Lewis.
Romeo Castellucci at Brussels’ La Monnaie (De Munt in Dutch) opera house takes a real-life sufferer of locked-in syndrome and turns her into the protagonist of Ophee et Eurydice (adapted by Hector Berlioz from Gluck).
A Spoonful of Sherman, Zedel, London. Review by Barbara Lewis.
After studying literature and painting, Robert B. Sherman, the elder half of one of the world’s most prolific song-writing duos, set about writing the great American novel, while his younger brother Richard, who had studied music, was working on the great American symphony.