MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
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Barbed commentaries from a master satirist
TOM KING recommends Martin Rowson's latest unfettered assault on personal and political pretence
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production that panders – if inadvertently – to Western prejudice against China
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a history that excavates the enormous role played by agricultural workers in recent times
ALEX HALL recommends a book that places empirical evidence at the heart of understanding racism
MARTIN ROWSON, in referring to Boris Johnson as a “Cloying Classical cum-stain of Cataline Calamity,” is both an excellent judge of character and in possession of an admirable aptitude for acerbic alliteration.
[[{"fid":"8858","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"1"}}]]Perhaps better known for his brilliantly derisive cartoons, in Pastrami Faced Racist — a collection of poetry about the farcical realities of modern Britain — he casts his satirical gaze over contemporary political and literary life, swapping brush for pen and witty and absurdist verse.
The book’s title, drawn from his poem of the same name, references those embittered gentlemen of a certain age, race, class and sexuality who crop up all too frequently on Question Time to offer their tedious opinions on the pressing issues of the day. “Pastrami faced racist/Basted in baseless/Hatred for faceless/Natives of nameless/Faraway places.”
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