LOUISE BOURDUA introduces the emotional and narrative religious art of 14th-century Siena that broke with Byzantine formalism and laid the foundations for the Renaissance

ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice

SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management

JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal

SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic

JON BALDWIN recommends a provocative assertion of how working-class culture can rethink knowledge

These are vivid accounts of people’s experiences of far-right violence along with documentation of popular resistance, says MARJORIE MAYO

The Star's critics MARIA DUARTE, JOHN GREEN and ANGUS REID review An Army of Women, Julie Keeps Quiet, The Friend and The Ugly Stepsister

MARIA DUARTE recommends a tough love-story that unfolds among mental health issues, drug addiction and inadequate housing

GORDON PARSONS squirms at a production that attempts to update Shakespeare’s comedy to a tale of Premier League football

by Pen Kease

Above a Gothic bar just down from Brighton station, something spooky is happening, suggests JAMES WALSH