TOM PIERSCIONEK recommends a remarkable series of interviews with those few and brave Israeli citizens who refuse to do military service
Understanding autism
MATTHEW HAWKINS admires a writer with the gumption and wit to extend a transformative experience of autism to the reader
Cedric Villani, the French mathematician, speaking at a public meeting of Macron’s centre-right party En Marche in Tokyo, 2018
[Syced/CC] 
The bard rests on his laurels, and swipes left and right
MARIA DUARTE cherishes the flashes of absurd humour and theme of community healing in a documentary set in a Soviet-era Black Sea sanatorium
ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review The Courageous, The Cut, Christy, and On Swift Horses
TOM STONE sings the praises of one of the oldest open-air festivals in Britain
Chris Searle speaks to accordionist KAREN STREET
Nine Minds – Inner Lives on The Spectrum
Daniel Tammet, Wellcome collection, £20
IS a mainstream mindset ever caught up in patterns of thought that are obsessive? Lines can be crossed: wires too. Eccentric or blinkered ways that are relatable in adulthood may signify as ominous mania in early life.
Nine Minds – Inner Lives on The Spectrum gets under the skin, by illustrating how intense interests or mental blanks that occur recognisably amid a happy majority can curiously ramp up or miss-time to designate an autistic community, among whom general rubric is written in upper-case bold.
Nine Minds keys into difference, from the perspective of interviewees who find themselves on the autistic spectrum. Its writing is not, essentially, a worded version of the workings of the autistic brain. Instead, author Daniel Tammet finds workable language to conjure portraits of his protagonists at their various stages of life.
More from this author
MATTHEW HAWKINS unpicks three new shows that deal with historical spectacle, feminism and fascism, and the extinction of species
MATTHEW HAWKINS recommends three memorable performances from Scottish dance artists Barrowland Ballet, In the Fields Project, and Wendy Houston
MATTHEW HAWKINS is mesmerised by a performance that dissolves the line between audience and performer
MATTHEW HAWKINS applauds a psychotherapist’s dissection of William Blake
