MARIA DUARTE, JAMES WALSH and ANDY HEDGECOCK review The Invite, My Father’s Island, Nirvanna: the Band, the Show, the Movie, and Oh My Goodness!
Latest editorial
Vanilla: A global history
Evocative account of a plant valued in nearly every culture for ts aroma and taste
HUGELY PROLIFIC: Vanilla
PAUL DONOVAN is chilled by the contemporary resonance of Harper Lee’s coming of age tale amidst racism and white supremacy in this excellent production
GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends the unashamedly light-hearted escapism on offer in this stage version of the 1963 film
Full of mysterious religious references and radical sound design, the Scottish duo’s new offering is candidate for album of the year, suggests SIMON DUFF
MARY CONWAY revels in a powerful reminder that human lives are not defined by physical perfection
PAUL DONOVAN recommends the fine performances in this account of the pre-war meeting between the US president and the British king
TECLYN AROD relishes an intimate celebration of jazz improvisation that mixes local and national musicians
ROSA ABREU-RUNKEL’S Vanilla is anything but — if that word is taken to mean bland or predictable.
Her book tells the story of 500 hundred years of mercantile and capitalist innovation and exploitation through the
cultivation and consumption of the cured, dried and conditioned beans of the vanilla planifolia plant, part of the orchid family.
Similar stories
Do frozen colonists carry the virus of empire? Why is monstrosity a great way to describe capital? Was God a dustman?
The West’s dangerous pesticide dumping in Africa is threatening biodiversity, population health and food sovereignty, argues ROGER McKENZIE
JOHN GREEN welcomes a remarkable study of Mozambique’s most renowned contemporary artist
![BY ANY MEANS POSSIBLE: Yanaocha mine in Cajamarca, Peru is the largest gold mine in South America operated by Newmont Corporation. It is considered the most profitable in the world [Pic: Elbuenminero/CC]](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2025-09/extractive%20caoitakism%20webpic.jpg.webp?itok=lkf5b6oi)
JOE GILL appreciates a lucid demonstration of how capital today is an outgrowth of the colonial economy