The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends an impressive impersonation of Bob Dylan
Best of 2024: Andy Hedgecock
Two books and a film that examine cultural excavation and the impact of place on behaviour
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Here, Vermiglio, William Tell and Wolf Man
New releases from Thorpe and Morrison, Daria Kulesh, and Will Finn and Rosie Calvert
RINA ARYA confronts the brutal operation of Francis Bacon’s approach to portraiture
Emphasising his continuous engagement in labour movement struggles, ALISTAIR FINDLAY salutes John Foster’s contribution as activist, strategist, intellectual and defender of the Morning Star
ANDY MIAH advocates the use of AI to assist people by expanding access to global literature and culture
EWAN KOTZ relishes a veteran Glasgow band that have lost none of their verve for live performance
PAUL KNOX’s London: A History of 300 Years in 25 Buildings (Yale, £25) is a salmagundi of celebration, inquest, polemic and prophecy.
Each chapter is the biography of a building in which architectural analysis triggers thoughts on fashion, morality, marketing, celebrities, ergonomics, local government and the collision of past and present. These apparently digressive ideas coalesce into a meta-narrative of the city’s evolving identities.
The oldest building considered is a neoclassical townhouse of the 1750s; the newest is Google’s state-of-the-art UK headquarters (opening in 2025).
More from this author
ANDY HEDGECOCK invites readers to contribute short fiction to our arts pages, offers some guidance and picks a few favourites
ANDY HEDGECOCK explores the implications of a recent statistical study of music lyrics that highlights the role of monopoly capital in silencing complexity
ANDY HEDGECOCK is compelled by a novel that challenges the assumption that atomic science is pure, objective and politically neutral
ANDY HEDGECOCK revels in an open-minded exploration of music that provokes reflection on the determinants of musical taste
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ANGUS REID speaks to Angus Farquhar about the political roots of his work with communities from the 1980s to the present day, and why he is inviting everyone to plant seeds in Glasgow Necropolis