NEVER HIT A WOMAN, EVEN WITH A FLOWER … Kate Ashton takes a close look at recent collections by Sasha Dugdale and Patricia McCarthy and considers how well they respond to the serious issues they address
society
CLOSING TIME AT THE ROYAL OAK: Richie McCaffery admires the way that John Lucas has embedded perceptive social observation in a history of his local pub
The Florentines: From Dante to Galileo. By Paul Strathern, Published April 1, Atlantic Books. Review by Barbara Lewis.
The Arctic: Culture and Climate: Resilience and an enduring thriving culture characterise the population living in the Arctic, a large area in the North Pole comprising Greenland, Alaska, some of the northern territories of Canada, and parts of Siberia and Scandinavia.
The Rome Plague Diaries, Lockdown Life in the Eternal City: In times when many of us have been wondering why we didn’t get ourselves stranded near a Caribbean beach, Matthew Kneale decided there was nowhere on the planet he would rather be locked down than where he was in his adoptive city of Rome.
Tantra: enlightenment to revolution, British Museum. Review by Carla Scarano. culture and tradition are as alive as ever today, as the comprehensive and exhaustive exhibition at the British Museum shows.
Post-Virus Venice: More than looks. Venice is, to a majority of us, one of humanity’s most seductive achievements.
Her Other Language: Wendy French gets to grips with a bold and frank anthology addressing domestic violence
Poetry Review – Shop TALK: Paul Tanner’s poetic accounts of life as a shop worker are vivid, uncompromising and ultimately uncomfortable
The Ugly Side of Beauty. Connie Woodring discusses the downside of our beauty culture as it relates to women’s physical/mental health and safety.
Social Solidarity and the Arts in Woke Times: Michael Crowley advocates against an ever-increasing subdivision of the arts into racial, age-related or gender groups for a similar audience
by Barbara Lewis • added recently on London Grip, books, psychiatry, society • Tags: Barbara Lewis, books, psychiatry, society •
Head First: A Psychiatrist’s Stories of Mind and Body by Alastair Santhouse.
Santhouse has found his destined niche in an NHS office, with mismatched furniture and absolutely no view, where he tries to fathom the very adult issues of desperate people on the edge of our society, many of whom have flummoxed every other medical department.