MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state
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Kathy Gee - “History will absolve me”
Well Versed is edited by Jody Porter
MATTHEW HAWKINS rakes through un-fancy words and flair-free summaries to find who and what might be flamboyant
PETER MASON is exhilarated by an exciting, well-considered and historically minded tribute to the great Trinidadian instrument
Reducing historical lives to ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles, we lose the nuance of those lives and a clearer understanding of past societies, suggests CLAIRE ISABELLA GILMOUR
CHRIS SEARLE relishes the genius of pianist Alexander Hawkins, his many ensembles, and his new album
“History will absolve me”
The title of a four-hour speech made by Fidel Castro on 16 October 1953
Havana’s flower girls are predatory,
leave the shade of stone arcades
in a practiced pincer movement.
One identifies the mark, diagonals,
too close, across the unattractive man
who sweats, uncertain, in the square.
Confiding hand in suet elbow
she holds fast as another beauty
links the circle from behind.
One lipstick kiss and he is suckered.
Pose for selfies, take his money.
Scarlet skirts and pink silk turbans.
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