GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
Latest editorial
The upside of regicide
GAVIN O’TOOLE relishes an account of the ideological creativity that was sparked by the abolition of the monarchy in England
STUFFY AUTHORITARIANS: Charles I by Anthony Van Dyck, 1635; Charles III, 2019
[Mark Tantrum/CC; The Royal Collection/CC]
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
HENRY BELL is fascinated by the underlying curiosities and contradictions of one of the great poets of the Mediterranean
DAVID RENTON recommends a books that explores the ways in which disabled people are made to feel both of and not part of this world
The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England
Jonathan Healey, Bloomsbury, £30
WHAT better way to mark the coronation of Charles III than to recall the execution of his predecessor, Charles I, as the crowning moment of a revolution?
The dethronement of Charles in 1649 ushered in an unprecedented experiment in republicanism amid extraordinary ideological ferment the like of which England has not experienced since.
Given the forthcoming accession of his namesake, it is tempting to make comparisons between the 17th-century monarch and that of today.
Similar stories
GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes, and recommends a a candid, evidence-based record of Britain’s role in the slaughter visited by Israel upon the Palestinians
GUILLERMO THOMAS is persuaded by a scathing critique of the Church of England and its embeddedness in imperialism
ANDREW MURRAY is compelled by the moment of revolution in British history when Parliament had political intimacy with society
There is no denying Thomas Cromwell's positive and progressive impact on English politics, argues STEPHEN ARNELL