SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective
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Yesterday’s future
Orwell’s 1984 was both timely and prophetic; this feminist reworking is well-written but inconsequential, writes CHRIS MOSS
WHAT ROT: Suzanna Hamilton and John Hurt in Michael Radford’s 1984
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Good Cop vs Bad Fascist fantasy, a guilty witness, Scottish witchcraft, and Camino de Santiago shocker
Releases from Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Maggie Nicols/Robert Mitchell/Alya Al Sultani, and Gordon Beck Trio and Quintet
The Bard stands with the Reformers of Peterloo, and their shared genius in teaching history with music and song
SUE TURNER is fascinated by a book that researches who the largely immigrant workforce were that built the Empire State
MARIA DUARTE and MALC McGOOKIN review Sirat, The Testament of Ann Lee, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, and All You Need Is Kill
Julia
Sandra Newman, Granta, £18.99
MANY people read George Orwell’s 1984 at school before they’ve come across other literary dystopias. Given the unrelenting, very English gloom that pervades it, chances are it puts them off the genre for good.
Savvy teachers talk up the author’s inventiveness in coining terms like Newspeak, Big Brother, the Ministry of Truth, Ingsoc etc. These have novelty value when first encountered and provoke debate, but have become cliches through overexposure. Orwell’s prescience as regards surveillance is obvious, but its restating has become tiresome and simplistic.
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