SUSAN DARLINGTON relishes an inclusive production of a Dickens classic that makes no bones about the lived reality of the Victorian working class
Uncanny echoes
ALAN MORRISON hears the tradition of English Modernism in an unusually accomplished debut volume of poetry
Rene Magritte, Les Graces Naturelles (The Natural Graces)
[Bibliotheque Nationale de France/CC]
New releases from The Belair Lip Bombs, Lisa O’Neill, and Sessa
RICHARD MURGATROYD enjoys a readable account of the life and meditations of one of the few Roman emperors with a good reputation
ALEX HALL asks whether intelligence, and stupidity, are the outcomes of poverty and wealth, and cultural norms
BRENT CUTLER is persuaded by a new account of the rise of Christianity, and the fall of the Roman empire
If non-human nature is devoid of value under the capitalist mode of production, this book presents the case for its reintegration, suggests HENRY BELL
New Famous Phrases
Daniel Hinds, Broken Sleep Books, £12.99
SINCE Smokestack Books closed its vital operation at the end of last year, after a prolific two decades, there is now a gaping space in the publication of working-class poetry. Broken Sleep Books is one established press which specifically specialises in publishing working-class poets.
Daniel Hinds hails from Newcastle, has been published in numerous notable journals, won prizes and acquired various commissions, and Famous New Phrases is his debut volume. Two different critical quotes accompanying the book each using the term “word-hoard” (from Old English “wordhord”) to refer to Hinds’s distinctive vocabulary. One in particular is “brae” which is a Lowland Scots term for the brow of a hill.
Similar stories
PATRICK JONES recommends a vital anthology from Afghan and Iranian poets where the political and personal fuse into witness-bearing and manifesto-making
A pamphlet by British Latinx poet Patrick Romero McCafferty, poetry by Anglo-Argentinian Miguel Cullen, and a book of conjuring poems by Mexican Pedro Serrano
LEO BOIX reviews Cuban poet Carlos Pintado; Mexican poet Diana Garza Islas; Mexican American writer and critic Rigoberto Gonzalez; and Brazilian poet Haroldo de Campos
ALISTAIR FINDLAY welcomes a collection of essays from one of the cultural left’s most respected speakers and activists