Le Corbusier has mostly gone down in history as a visionary Swiss urban planner. For the thousands forcibly evicted from District Six in Cape Town, he has a more sinister resonance as the proponent of “the surgical method” – as mentioned in the notorious apartheid-era Group Areas Act – of sweeping away what he saw as chaos and disorder.
London has become home to more members of the global super-rich than any other city in the world. Londoners might catch occasional glimpses of their presence when a super yacht moors by HMS Belfast on the Thames or another planning dispute over a basement excavation breaks out in the news.
STILL SHINING: Brian Docherty reflects on the wealth of experience which adds extra polish to Katherine Gallagher’s poetry
A New Life for the Riding-Crop-Handle Maker; Sarah Lawson reminds us of a popular account of an immigrant’s experience which has – perhaps undeservedly – fallen out of the public eye
Even in times when rehash is more common than originality, the risk with a revival of Burt Bacharach’s late 1960s musical Promises, Promises, in turn based on Billy Wilder’s 1960 film The Apartment, is that it feels doubly derivative.
A POET’S CALENDAR: Brian Docherty reviews Peter Daniels’ latest collection
Emma Lee reviews a handsome anthology of poems inspired by the South Lookout on Aldeburgh Beach
We are delighted to announce Spectrum’s competition, The Spectrum Art Prize. This is a new national award which celebrates the exciting work produced by artists on the autistic spectrum.
D A Prince discusses John Freeman’s direct and emotionally honest poetry
Graham Hardie is won over by a freshness and simplicity he finds in Hamish Whyte’s poetry
Wendy French enthuses about a prize-winning first collection by Gillie Robic
Kate Bingham praises Joan Michelson’s eye for the details of life in a retirement home.
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, poetry reviews, year 2017 • Tags: books, Kate Bingham, poetry