Nothing, says ANDY HEDGECOCK, can rescue this undistinguished amalgam of ponderous melodrama and shallow philosophical speculation
for Liam
Oh Minister for Worry and Work.
Your head is a perfect egg
waiting for the teaspoon
to come crashing down on it.
You’re on the side of hard-working
arses who haven’t stopped to take
a wipe since Maggie were a lad,
men in white cars who know
there’s nothing up with the youth
of today that having pointless orders
screamed in their ears before
five in the morning wouldn’t quickly cure.
MARK SEDDON tries to cool off in the countryside to avoid the heatwaves but the greed and incompetence of the privatised water industry is now at boiling point
Monster profits on the Tube, paternal dilemmas for time travellers, and an alien abduction buddy saga
ALAN MORRISON recommends a consummate, heart-warming collection about a working-class upbringing in the industrial north-east
RUTH AYLETT reviews two collections of outright political poetry



