WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
A multidimensional world of seers, dreams and prophecies
Nagaland shawl with tiger and lion motiv
[Atcelsius/Creative Commons] 
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
Spirit Nights
by Easterine Kire
Barbican Press, £9.99
SPIRIT NIGHTS is a challenging yet compelling read, but one likely to fully reward the persistent reader by its close.
Both set in and inspired by the rich cultural history of Nagaland, the remote state in north-eastern India, author Easterine Kire offers an immersive experience that certainly can be classified as part mythology and part an ethnographical study.
Yet, in so many more respects, it is far more than the combination of these two genres, as it also explores the universal themes of love, loss, courage and the tension between individual and collective responses to existential threats.
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