RITA DI SANTO draws attention to a new film that features Ken Loach and Jeremy Corbyn, and their personal experience of media misrepresentation
Poetic licence to thrill
Benjamin Zephaniah's excellent autobiography allows him time and space to take stock of a hugely engaging life, says PETER MASON
Benjamin Zephaniah
JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime
MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson
KEN COCKBURN guides us through a survey of Chekov’s early short fiction, and the groundwork it laid for his later masterpieces
ANDY HEDGECOCK revels in a hugely enjoyable but deadly serious examination of the 1930s, that is an indictment of our own era
The bard distills our hellish times into fiery words
The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah
(Simon & Schuster, £20)
POET, playwright, novel writer, children's author — now we can add autobiographical skills to Benjamin Zephaniah's list of writing attributes.
This is a beautifully penned and highly entertaining account of an intriguing life, opening us up not just to Zephaniah's story but to a wide range of topics arising out of it, from death and racism to co-operativism and male infertility.
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