New releases from Robert Forster, Self Esteem, and Arve Henriksen
Latest editorial
Evaluating Roger Casement
PAUL DONOVAN enjoys a valuable contribution to a wider understanding of the remarkable human rights activist turned Irish freedom fighter
FORENSIC EVIDENCE : Roger Casement photographed these native youths, in Colombia’s Putumayo region, who were forced to carry and estimated their weight at 75 kilos each. The Indians carried them over a distance of 100 kms without food being given. Writer Mario Vargas Llosa said of him: “He should be regarded as a pioneer in the fight against colonialism, racism and prejudice.”
SIMON PARSONS is gripped by a psychological thriller that questions the the power of the state over vulnerable individuals
KEN COCKBURN assesses the art of Ian Hamilton Finlay for the experience of warfare it incited and represents
The bard gives us advance notice of his upcoming medieval K-pop releases
GORDON PARSONS steps warily through the pessimistic world view of an influential US conservative
HENRY BELL takes issue with the assertion that basic income is a remedy for poverty when it doesn’t address the inbuilt inequality of capitalism
RON JACOBS welcomes an investigation of the murders of US leftist activists that tells the story of a solidarity movement in Chile
Broken Archangel — The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement
Roland Philipps
Bodley Head, £25
THIS thorough investigation of the life of Sir Roger Casement delves deep into the emotional waters of a man who lived a remarkable life and whose fame seems to grow with the passing years.
It was always going to be some story. Casement was an Irishman who rose from humble beginnings to the heights of the British diplomatic service at a time when Britain really did rule the waves. His achievements were such that he was knighted in 1912, retiring from the diplomatic service in July 1913 on a generous pension. Yet, just three short years later, the country that had honoured Casement was executing him for treason.
Similar stories
RUTH AYLETT reviews two books of poetry, one by the Iranian American Marjorie Lofti, the other by the British Lebanese Omar Sabbagh
TONY COLLINS looks at the evidence he has uncovered in his research on our early labour movement of deep and hostile police infiltration that ruined lives in the last century
ALEX HALL is dazzled by contemporary descriptions of life and rural work in 19th century Wales and Australia
