ANDY HEDGECOCK picks out his cultural highlights of 2025
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Farewell to Harry
BEN LUNN pays tribute to Accrington-born giant Harrison Birtwhistle – but wonders if working-class kids today have the opportunity to explore music that he did
Star cartoonist MALC MCGOOKIN finds lessons for today in the punch, and the economy of line, of an extraordinary generation of illustrators
LEO BOIX, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review Dreamers, It Was Just An Accident, Folktales, and Eternity
JENNY MITCHELL, poetry co-editor for the Morning Star, introduces her priorities, and her first selection
HENRY BELL is sceptical of the notion that ‘progress’ is an ideology that the ruling class uses exclusively to camouflage appropriation
In search of political understanding, MATTHEW HAWKINS welcomes a critique of anti-semitism as codified by the Israeli state
BEN CHACKO welcomes a masterful analysis that puts class struggle back at the heart of our understanding of China’s revolution
ON APRIL 18, the Accrington-born giant and musical hell-raiser Harrison Birtwistle passed away. To say he was one of the largest voices in British music is an understatement.
His music has had a resonance and reach which can only be compared to a few other British composers — namely Henry Purcell, Edward Elgar and Benjamin Britten.
The broad outpouring of sadness at his passing, combined with numerous hilarious anecdotes and stories, shows his connection to the world around him was as large as his music.
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