ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
Putting out the rubbish
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
New releases from Brown Horse, Craig Finn, and Julien Baker & TORRES
Waste Wars — Dirty Deals, International Rivalries and the Scandalous Afterlife of Rubbish
Alexander Clapp, John Murray, £25
IT has always been thus; dangerous, filthy and smelly trades have been conducted downwind or out of sight of more salubrious neighbourhoods — dyeworks, tanneries and slaughterhouses spring to mind.
Today waste management fits into this list. Instead of “salubrious neighbourhoods” read affluent nations of the global north and for “downwind and out of sight” read countries of the global South.
More from this author
SUE TURNER is fascinated to read of another miners’ strike of the 1980s, told through the voices of women
A book whose positive message and clear-eyed sense of purpose make it an inspirational read is recommended by SUE TURNER
SUE TURNER recommends the first ever English edition of a memoir of Abraham Sutzkever, a poet turned resistance activist in the Vilna Ghetto in Lithuania
‘The most powerful form of resistance lies in maintaining one’s humanity in the face of tyranny,’ is an all-poignant moral definition of Palestinian struggle, writes SUE TURNER
