For his study of anti-Muslim Muzaffarnagar Riot, HENRY BELL applauds Joe Sacco for a devastatingly effective combination of graphic novel and investigative journalism
Poetry of praise and protest
RUTH AYLETT recommends a new collection that is direct and open to all, both conversational and radical
Jackie Kay MBE, Chancellor of the University of Salford, April 29 2015
[University of Salford Press Office/CC]
SUSAN DARLINGTON swoons in the presence of a magnetic frontman
ANDY HEDGECOCK recommends an unflinching examination of the chaos and suffering wrought by US foreign policy, told through the story of a child’s simple quest
PAUL DONOVAN applauds a new play that revisits in old age the well-known characters of Margaret Thatcher’s favourite TV series
MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review "Wuthering Heights", Little Amelie or the Character of Rain, Crime 101, and Stitch Head
The economy collapses and London is abandoned by the wealthy. Determined to survive, a working-class woman struggles with scarcity and dejection
MARY CONWAY becomes impatient with the intellectual self-indulgence of Tom Stoppard in a production that is, nevertheless, total class
May Day
By Jackie Kay, Picador
£10.99
Jackie Kay has been a leading British poet for a good 30 years and she was Scotland’s Makar (poet laureate) from 2016-21. Her poetry is direct and open to all, and her voice is distinctive: both conversational and radical.
May Day is her latest collection. Its title has two meanings, represented by two poems, one called MayDay, and the other May Day. The first is a signal of distress at the recent deaths of her parents, while the second is a celebration of their activist lives as committed socialists and trade unionists, including many years in the British Communist Party.
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