CATHERINE STEEL relishes a compelling novel about Augustus’s right hand man, but misses the politics, the cultural shifts, and more detail about his restoration of Rome
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Virgin and Child by Maggie Hamand
Gripping novel of intersex Pope pregnant with transgressive tensions
TONY BURKE speaks to JOEL McIVER, co-author of the biography of bluesman John Mayall
A misfit couple unhappily ever after, a dead man walking, dodgy journos, and trench art trucking
New releases from Javon Jackson, IZE Trio, and Mal Waldron Trio
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an intriguing multi-layered depiction, dominated by a stunning impersonation of Marilyn herself
EWAN CAMERON marvels at the impossible ambition, realised with dreamlike finesse of translating Italo Calvino to the stage
MAGGIE HAMAND'S Virgin and Child describes a brutal war zone of shifting battle lines, a clash between theoretical theologising reflecting papal power and prerogative and the messy truths of personal experience.
ACUTELY TUNED EAR: Maggie Hamand (Photo Barbican Press)
In her novel, Pope Patrick is the first Irish-born incumbent of the Roman Catholic church. A pretty mainstream pontiff, he is nevertheless already raising the hackles of the hardcore reactionaries within the hierarchy.
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