“Our City: Migrants and the Making of Modern Birmingham”, by Jon Bloomfield. Review by Jane McChrystal.
Although Jon Bloomfield intended “Our City” for a general audience, I think some of our elected representatives could learn a lot from it.
politics
Nellie Cressall on the Isle of Dogs Part 1, by Jane McChrystal.
In 1962 The Westinghouse Corporation made a documentary film exploring the state of the nation as Britain continued to register the aftershocks of war, adjusted to the loss of empire and witnessed the erosion of its status as a world-class industrial nation.
London Grip Poetry Review – Edward Mackinnon
Neil Fulwood considers Edward Mackinnon’s forceful poetic dissection of 75 years of war
East End Suffragettes: the photographs of Norah Smyth. By Jane McChrystal.
If you can get along to Bethnal Green in the next three weeks, I highly recommend a visit to this exhibition of photographs. They document a dramatic period in the history of the East London.
A Third Colour
Merryn Williams shares a few thoughts about Alan Dunnett’s rather challenging poetry collection which seeks, among other things, to capture “the psychological fallout of anxiety in modern capitalist culture”
In search of an Italian identity
Carla Scarano visits two exhibitions in Florence: The return to Italy of Salvatore Ferragamo in 1927 and the Dawn of a Nation after WW II
Interesting? I’ll Say!
John Lucas reviews a genuinely interesting collection of essays by Jim Burns – and adds some equally interesting observations of his own
Celebration of the East London Federation of Suffragettes
The East End of London was a crucible for radical ideas and activism, including the women’s suffrage movement, fired in part by the deprivation and inequality experienced by so many of its inhabitants.
Poems for Grenfell Tower
Rip Bulkeley describes the planning and production of a forthcoming anthology of poems responding to the fire in Grenfell Tower .
A Blade of Grass
Richie McCaffery examines a new anthology of Palestinian poetry, edited by Naomi Foyle, and finds it eye-opening
London Grip Poetry Review – Rosen
Fiona Sinclair commends Michael Rosen’s use of poetry to make some telling political points
“Upon that memorable Scene”
Neil Curry indulges in a brief speculation on a recent parallel to a historical moment in the 17th century