SCOTT ALSWORTH foresees the coming of the smaller, leaner, and class conscious indie studio, with art as its guiding star
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Gripping tale of dark-web drug dealer’s rise and demise
Daniel Moutia reviews American Kingpin by Nick Bilton
MARJORIE MAYO recommends an accessible and unsettling novel that uses a true incident of death in the Channel to raise questions of wider moral responsibility
MIK SABIERS wallows in a night of political punk and funk that fires both barrels at Trump
Reasonable radicalism, death in Abu Dhabi, locked-room romance, and sleuthing in the Blitz
SIMON DUFF recommends a new album from renowned composer and oud player Anour Brahem.
JAMES WALSH has a great night in the company of basketball players, quantum physicists and the exquisite timing of Rosie Jones
A New Awakening: Adventures In British Jazz 1966 - 1971, G3, and Buck Owens
American Kingpin by Nick Bilton (Virgin Books, £12.99)
DRUGS, guns and illegal porn are said to be the only things you can buy with the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and this well-written book chronicles its centrality to the rise and fall of the Silk Road, the site on the dark web — the hidden part of the internet — the people behind it and those tasked with bringing the virtual marketplace to an end.
The creation of the Silk Road, the “Amazon of drugs,” came about at the perfect time, according to American Kingpin’s author Nick Bilton. In its ascendancy, Bitcoin allowed online trade to flourish anonymously and all that was required was someone willing to take advantage.
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