New releases from Van Morrison, Tyler Ballgame, and Dry Cleaning
Latest editorial
Insights into political contradictions and certitudes of ‘gloomy sage’ George Orwell
Establishment mouthpiece: George Orwell broadcasts for the BBC in 1940
[BBC/Creative Commons]
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely history of the Anti Imperialist league of America, and the role that culture played in their politics
STEVE ANDREW appreciates a passionate account of the Scottish Club during the ‘lost decade’
By telling the story of a lawless frontier town from the point of view of the Lakota, Chinese labourers, prostitutes and displaced prospectors, makes for a potted history of capital, suggests ALEX HALL
TONY BURKE speaks to Gambian kora player SUNTOU SUSSO
MARIA DUARTE recommends a British boxing biopic about the stormy relationship between Nazeem Hamed and his trainer Brendan Ingle
Liberty, Equality, and Humbug: Orwell’s Political Ideals
by David Dwan
(Oxford University Press, £25)
THE inclusion of “humbug” in the title of David Dwan’s examination of the ideals that drove one of the most controversial political writers of the mid-20th century does not necessarily imply that he is about demolishing George Orwell’s reputation.
Similar stories
This is poetry in paint, spectacular but never spectacle for its own sake, writes JAN WOOLF
JOHN GREEN surveys the remarkable career of screenwriter Malcolm Hulke and the essential part played by his membership of the Communist Party
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
CAROLINE FOWLER explains how the slave trade helped establish the ‘golden age’ of Dutch painting and where to find its hidden traces