Graham Hardie takes particular note of the wide range of the poems in a debut pamphlet by Robin Thomas.
year 2017
Art is Comic, billed as a light-hearted response to terror, is the latest exhibition to embrace rough, industrial brickwork as the perfect backdrop for popular artists with hundreds of thousands of followers and an outwardly casual attitude towards failing politics and social injustice.
James Roderick Burns sees Tania Hershman’s debut collection as an exploration of uncertainty.
When Neville Chamberlain declared war on Germany on 3rd September 1939, the country he led was by no means united in its opposition to Hitler. The English aristocracy numbered many Nazi sympathisers in its ranks, who would have welcomed the introduction of a regime modelled on the Third Reich into their country during the 1930’s.
In a post-factual world of discredited journalism and politicians who, more than ever, we do not believe, theatre with its direct emotional truth can provide a much-needed release.
In the shocker “can-it-possibly-be-true?” atmosphere of tabloid journalism, this theatrical account of Murdoch’s acquisition of a moribund Sun newspaper and his appointment of the angry Albert “Larry” Lamb to bring it back to life tells us the notorious press baron’s grandfather was a minister in the Scottish church.
The poems of Pauline Yarwood seem to know where they are going and Alex Josephy sets out to follow them
“Matisse in the Studio” does not deliver the sensational overdoses of colour and the full-on confrontation with genius of the Tate blockbusters, but there is a place for this more digestible insight into the transformative way Matisse saw based on examining his use of “objets d’art” as inspiration.
A new novel by John Lucas looks back in search of explanations for two sudden deaths occurring in an English village just after World War Two
Wendy French finds that Ruth Valentine’s chapbook fully meets the challenge of responding to the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
D A Prince reviews a poetry anthology which commemorates the 800th anniversary of the Charter of the Forest – a companion to Magna Carta that should probably be better known
Thomas Ovans is surprised – but in a good way – by some subtle oddities in John Roe’s use of language
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, poetry reviews, year 2017 • Tags: books, poetry, Thomas Ovans