The bard pays homage to his two muses: his wife and his football club
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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MARY CONWAY is disappointed by an incoherent show that fails to question stereotypical assumptions about the Soviet Union
JOHN McINALLY welcomes a rigorous class analysis of the history and exploitation of sectarianism by the Scottish ruling elite
WILL STONE, JAMES WALSH and MARIA DUARTE review Souleymane’s Story, Sunlight, Good Fortune, and After The Hunt
ALEX HALL recommends an exhaustive investigation of the means by which the Starmer faction assassinated the left
DAVID MORGAN recommends a refreshingly inspiring novel that features encounters with some tremendous women
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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While German leaders talk independence and even the Tories promise to speak truth to America, the Labour leader grovelled before a president whose comments he once called ‘absolutely repugnant,’ writes PETER KENWORTHY
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an adaptation that draws out the contemporary relevance of George Orwell’s satire