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Fiona O'Connor
round up
Cinema / 6 August 2026
6 August 2026

MICHAL BONCZA, FIONA O’CONNOR, JAMES WALSH and ANGUS REID review Atlas of Disappearance, Love Me Tender, Bouchra, and This Tempting Madness

round up
Cinema / 30 July 2026
30 July 2026

ANGUS REID, FIONA O’CONNOR, JAMES WALSH and MARIA DUARTE review Wham! 10 Days in China, Lesvia, Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and The Fires

Pic: Free Clip Art/CC
Literature / 14 July 2026
14 July 2026

FIONA O’CONNOR questions the achievement of this year’s Orwell prize winner for political fiction

fotw
Film of the Week / 18 June 2026
18 June 2026

FIONA O’CONNOR is bowled over by a stunning Welsh language drama

wilderness
Books / 2 June 2026
2 June 2026

FIONA O’CONNOR admires an ambitious first novel that loosens South Africa’s rainbow collective to examine the racial tensions within

vigil
Books / 19 May 2026
19 May 2026

FIONA O’CONNOR casts a weary eye over a superficial and tonally complacent satire of US religious capitalism

round up
Cinema / 7 May 2026
7 May 2026

FIONA O’CONNOR and MARIA DUARTE review Romeria, Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition, Remarkably Bright Creatures, and The Sheep Detectives

barbellion
Literary prize / 5 May 2026
5 May 2026

FIONA O’CONNOR welcomes the the return of the Barbellion prize for disabled writers

Mann
Books / 3 March 2026
3 March 2026

FIONA O’CONNOR relishes a cinematic exploration of the writing, and the historical context of Thomas Mann’s WWI masterpiece, The Magic Mountain

silver
Books / 23 January 2026
23 January 2026

Despite an underwhelming finale, FIONA O CONNOR relishes a vivid exploration of the Cinecitta of Pasolini and Fellini at their height

FoC
Best of 2025 / 22 December 2025
22 December 2025

FIONA O’CONNOR picks books and films that show defiance in the face of violence and injustice

fotw
Film of the week / 20 November 2025
20 November 2025

FIONA O’CONNOR rejoices in the long-overdue exposure of the secretive, brutish hinterland of ultra-conservative Catholic Ireland

round up
Cinema / 6 November 2025
6 November 2025

MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O CONNOR and JOHN GREEN review The Choral, Belen, Dragonfly, and Colossal Wreck

unforgivable
TV review / 28 July 2025
28 July 2025

FIONA O CONNOR recommends an unflinching depiction of child sexual abuse and its aftershocks, set in a working-class Liverpool family

Elizabeth Bishop in 1964 in Petropolis were she lived for 15 years with architect Lota de Macedo Soares / Pic: Brazilian National Archives/CC
Books / 26 May 2025
26 May 2025

FIONA O'CONNOR recommends a biography that is a beautiful achievement and could stand as a manifesto for the power of subtlety in art

minds
Books / 20 May 2025
20 May 2025

FIONA O’CONNOR is fascinated by a novel written from the perspective of a neurodivergent psychology student who falls in love

dream web
Literature / 29 April 2025
29 April 2025

FIONA O’CONNOR steps warily through a novel that skewers many of the exposed flanks of the over-privileged

A civilian casualty of war in Iraq lost both legs
Books / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
A GREAT TEACHER: Fredric Jameson speaking at the Brazilian c
Books / 18 February 2025
18 February 2025
FIONA O’CONNOR recommends an accessible and entertaining survey of post-war French philosophy and its relation to contemporary capitalism
The four new tower blocks built around Deansgate Square domi
Book Review / 12 December 2024
12 December 2024
FIONA O’CONNOR admires a collection that is a riposte to the armies of developers, estate agents, private capital speculators and their marketeers
POACHER TURNED GAMEKEEPER? Jess Phillips MP holds the Sue Gr
Books / 5 September 2024
5 September 2024
FIONA O’CONNOR examines a new book by Labour’s media-savvy MP and new Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls
DOUBLE BIND: A woman working from home during the pandemic
Book Review / 28 August 2024
28 August 2024
FIONA O'CONNOR endorses an examination of how current neoliberal policies sweep social care and welfare burdens into hidden abodes and increase exploitative pressures, particularly on working-class women
AGAINST BRAINWASHING: (L) Magdalen Laundry in Ireland, early
Appreciation / 6 August 2024
6 August 2024
FIONA O’CONNOR treasures the work of Edna O’Brien for the depth of evocation of psychologies, desires and losses among ordinary lives
Irish peasants, 1880
Books Review / 13 June 2024
13 June 2024
FIONA O’CONNOR relishes the revelation that capitalist assumptions are fundamentally different to the peasant’s relation to the land