LEO BOIX recommends a ravishing, full-bodied drama about the intensely demanding and emotional art of Kabuki theatre
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If we must have a Poet Laureate, then let it be Simon Armitage
His new book reveals him to be one of our most inventive and popular poets
Tour guide to the contemporary world: Simon Armitage
On the day of the election, MARTIN GOLLAN reflects on the perennial relationship between the far-right and the back-hander
MARY CONWAY is gripped by the powerful emotional journeys portrayed by the parents of the perpetrator and victims of a mass shooting
LEO BOIX reviews a novel where shadows deceive and mortality looms, and a poetry collection that refuses to dim
ROBIN STYLES welcomes a boundary pushing work of fiction exploring the life and ideas of the godmother of modernism
PAUL DONOVAN recommends an energetic adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel, that emphasises how psychiatry is a tool in the hands of a racist agenda
THE CONTINUED existence of the Poet Laureateship in the 21st century is an embarrassing anachronism, just like the continued existence of the monarchy.
Some of our best poets have publicly refused to have anything to do with the job. Adrian Mitchell said he would only consider the role if he was allowed to “tap-dance on the coffin at every royal funeral” and Tony Harrison once wrote a long poem disqualifying himself from the job of “rat-catcher to our present queen.”
And Benjamin Zephaniah has said that he “does not need to go via the church, the state, or the monarchy to reach my people.”
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ANDY CROFT welcomes the publication of an anthology of recent poems published by the Morning Star, and hopes it becomes an annual event
ANDY CROFT rallies poets to the impossible task of speaking truth to a tin-eared politician
FIONA O'CONNOR recommends a biography that is a beautiful achievement and could stand as a manifesto for the power of subtlety in art
KEN COCKBURN assesses the art of Ian Hamilton Finlay for the experience of warfare it incited and represents