ALEX HALL treads warily through a messy, dialectical struggle fought in the mundane machinery of driving licences, criminal law, and birth registries

GORDON PARSONS recommends an entertaining account of the years between Germany’s defeat in WWI and Hitler’s seizure of power

ALAN MORRISON explores, and recommends, a remarkable collection of poems that explore war photography with the moral responsibility of a documentary film-maker

by Matthew Paul

JAMES WALSH tells you everything you could possibly want to know about what comedy is on offer at the fringe

Conman conned in a twisty thriller, blind trust tested to the limit, cunning murder methods, and tip-top police procedural

SIMON DUFF is thrilled by a visceral, no-holds-barred exploration of the expressive powers of raw material 

GEORGE FOGARTY reflects on the politics expressed at this year’s festival where contradictions abound, but the music kept it real

CHRIS SEARLE waxes lyrical over Alan Skidmore’s tenor-tonic, Jeremy Pelt, and the Yusef Lateef Quartet

Rereleases from Nazareth, and The Strawbs, and a fine collection of covers and new songs from Grey DeLisle & Les Greene

New releases from Captain Yossarian, Orquesta Akokan, and Nana Osei Twum Barima

RON JACOBS is enthralled by Roberto Saviano’s portrait of heroes and deplorables, that calls for people to stand up for themselves and the things they believe in

BRENT CUTLER is disappointed by a work of historical revisionism by a former US army officer, that makes a false equivalence between the two regimes

JIM JUMP introduces two new publications that examine both sides of the Irish participation in the Spanish civil war

DOMINIC O’KEY recommends Arundhati Roy’s study of troubled mother/daughter relations

The Bard contributes to the campaign of Count Binface, and applauds Burnham’s plans for vocational training
 

JAN WOOLF welcomes the initiative of St Mungo’s, a charity for the homeless, to use use outdoor art to explore the lives of those it has helped

KIM CULLEN enjoys the survey of social work and working-class lives to be found in the superb work of British-Jamaican photographer Sandra George

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

MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state

MATTHEW HAWKINS rakes through un-fancy words and flair-free summaries to find who and what might be flamboyant

by Mary Gilonne

Tony Burke speaks to GARTH CARTWRIGHT about the new edition of his book exploring the vinyl meccas of London

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

PETER MASON is exhilarated by an exciting, well-considered and historically minded tribute to the great Trinidadian instrument

CHRIS SEARLE relishes the genius of pianist Alexander Hawkins, his many ensembles, and his new album

SIMON PARSONS applauds the timely revival of a play about solidarity and betrayal within Britain’s Pakistani community

New releases from The Mountains Goats, Ed O’Brien, and YHWH Nailgun

RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers

The Odyssey is a tale of evasions and half-truths; this reflects the effects of traumatic ‘moral injury’ common to war veterans, suggests STEPHAN BLUM

by Alistair Findlay

BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions

PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society

KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war

SYLVIA HIKINS welcomes a an in-depth study of environmental activism that shows how governments work against citizens who put community before profit

ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung

MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice

GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue

Chris Searle speaks to British pianist ZOE RAHMAN

by Mike Jenkins

DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy

GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a pessimistic novel in which Hitler is removed from history, to little effect

New releases from Old Spot, Chris Marksberry, and Clementine Lovell

STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error

DIANE WATT argues that while evidence of sex is not there, a 16th‑century lesbian poet could be Scotland’s answer to Gentleman Jack

JAN WOOLF relishes an extensive history of our long relationship to trees in Britain that underlines the current emergency

RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself

MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock

The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum

ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity,  Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London

 MARIA DUARTE admires the scale of Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer

By Clive Branson

KEITH RICHMOND relishes a superbly conceived modern version of Aeschylus’ drama of murderous family succession

CHRIS SEARLE urges you to listen to two new albums by the US Indian pianist VIJAY IYER

DENNIS BROE recommends two new series on Apple TV for their examination of inequality and skewed morals

MICHAL BONCZA recommends a minimalist installation that prompts intriguing connotations

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

LEO BOIX reviews two powerful Latin American novels in which myth and crime fiction expose the deadly consequences of patriarchy, clandestine abortion and state violence

CHRISTIAN KNOBLAUCH is thrilled by the response of children to the presence of artefacts from the British Museum in their classrooms

New releases from Laura Veirs, The Waterboys, and Yard Act

GLENN FOSBRAEY recommends a biography worth reading for both existing George Michael fans and those yet to be converted

FRANCIS DEVINE introduces a new collection of essays that draws on Pease McKenna’s example to indicate future paths for the movement

ANGUS REID considers the power of the podcast as a vehicle for consensus building in opposition to mainstream media narratives

PAUL FOLEY revels in the coolest, most joyful piece of theatre you’ll get this summer

Ron's rages are sincere and — according to his wife — healthily cathartic. But can these splenetic outbursts loosen the grip of capitalism at its most monstrous?  

ALEX HALL treasures a meticulous examination of international institutions that have given in to Israeli pressure during their still unfolding campaign of genocide

KEVIN DONNELLY and MARIA DUARTE review Shoot the People, The Last One For The Road, Rosebush Pruning, and Moana

JAMES WALSH recommends an exceptional documentary about the experience of Western doctors in Gaza

by Rosie Jackson

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to US saxophonist CAROLINE KRAABEL

KEVIN DONNELLY suggests that the task of transforming cultural spaces is far from over and that photography still has a key role to play

RITA DI SANTO talks to Scottish-Irish filmmaker MARK COUSINS about his new panorama of world cinema The Story of Documentary Film

ALAN MORRISON welcomes a new collection from the most imaginative and committed ecopoet of our time

CAL McBRIDE relishes the lyrical truth of an unstable identity in an over-tidy and conventional social realist treatment

MATTHEW HAWKINS checks out the centenary performance of Rambert Dance Company

New releases from Shearwater, Florry, and Navy Blue

ANDY HEDGECOCK welcomes an entertaining, useful guide to the threats and promises of mathematical rationality

GAVIN O’TOOLE is enthralled by the colourful portrait of a woman who pioneered a path into the tough, magical world of journalism

STEVE ANDREW appreciates the unusual story of a family childhood spent on the run from the state and its police

JENNIE WALSH reviews an urgent political intervention by physicist Carlo Rovelli at a time of escalating militarisation and war

STEVE JOHNSON speaks to London singer/songwriter MADDY CARTY

In verse and polemic, the bard points out that he is a poet and musician, not a political party

CHRIS SEARLE welcomes a startling vision of contemporary Newport from a veteran photographer of the British working class

MARIA DUARTE, JAMES WALSH and ANDY HEDGECOCK review The Invite, My Father’s Island, Nirvanna: the Band, the Show, the Movie, and Oh My Goodness! 

ANGUS REID recommends a very unusual documentary: a love story between two disillusioned journalists

PAUL DONOVAN is chilled by the contemporary resonance of Harper Lee’s coming of age tale amidst racism and white supremacy in this excellent production

by Alastair McLeish

GEOFF BOTTOMS recommends the unashamedly light-hearted escapism on offer in this stage version of the 1963 film

Full of mysterious religious references and radical sound design, the Scottish duo’s new offering is candidate for album of the year, suggests SIMON DUFF

TECLYN AROD relishes an intimate celebration of jazz improvisation that mixes local and national musicians

IAN SINCLAIR relishes a fantastical globetrotting thriller featuring one of the most memorable characters in contemporary literature

PAUL DONOVAN recommends the fine performances in this account of the pre-war meeting between the US president and the British king

MARY CONWAY revels in a powerful reminder that human lives are not defined by physical perfection

The missing sister, the vengeful WAG, cruise ship claustrophobia, and reanimated Avengers

Three great releases of lost concerts by Duke Ellington Orchestra, John Taylor & Stan Sulzman, and Joe Henderson

PAUL DONOVAN applauds this joyous retelling of the story of the idealistic young communist Mark Ashton and his legendary solidarity with the striking miners

To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE

If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL

CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear

GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy

BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul

STEVEN ANDREW is fascinated by an account of the many baseless folk tales that evolved to explain the existence of pre-historic stone circles

GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis

DAVID HARVIE recommends a selection of Harry Cleaver’s writing that documents working-class activism and offers a method, and a way of understanding and investigating the world

ANDY HEDGECOCK, FIONA O’CONNOR and MARIA DUARTE review The Last Viking, Blue Heron, 500 Miles, How To Live On Earth, and Supergirl

MARIA DUARTE goes down a bilingual rabbit hole with an impressive Jodie Foster

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Palestinian multi-instrumentalist DIRAR KALASH

by Roy McFarlane

DAVID YEARSLEY is fascinated by the account of four composers who transformed their experiences of the second world war and the Holocaust into deeply moving works of art

From post-human revolution in Puerto Rico to trans poetics and queer mythmaking, these three books that imagine new ways of being together

GEORGE FOGARTY is dazzled by a breathtakingly skillful puppet version of Shakespeare’s greatest love poem

PETER MASON thrills to the sound of south London-born Yussef Dayes, and the galaxy of musicians drawn into his orbit

Re-releases from Iain Matthews, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and The Charlie Daniels Band

DAVID MCKINSTRY tells the story of George Bernard Shaw, the self-educated man who transformed political theatre, and admired Stalin

GREGORY SALTER draws attention to the fact that the kind of state support that David Hockney received is simply not on offer today

JAMIE BRITTON recommends that we all buy at least two copies of a remarkable book of poems

The bard joins the Carnival Against Fascism, which summer fun sends him down Memory Lane

by Rachel Davies

MARIA DUARTE and MICHAL BONCZA review Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day, Familiar Touch, Nino, and Toy Story 5

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

HENRY BELL follows the lineage of revolutions, from the English to the Chinese, and asks where revolutionary politics exists today

MARJ MAYO sees the contemporary relevance of this account of the consequences of a society’s accommodation with evil

ALEX HALL welcomes an analysis of how modern capitalism is deeply intertwined with emotions, and their manipulation

MARTIN GRAHAM welcomes a statistical analysis of how much tax the super-rich pay, and foresees that the demand will flush out their agents

MATTHEW HAWKINS explores the initiatives proposed by HEALING ARTS SCOTLAND

RICHARD WORTH relishes the fleeting moment and sense of flow of the late, great saxophonist

by Natalia Gameson

DENNIS BROE notes the thin, unfunny and apolitical quality of the gruel dished up by the US networks and studios for mass consumption

BARBARA BOSWELL remembers South African poet, storyteller, publisher, editor and activist Diana Ferrus (1953-2026)

HELEN VASSALLO recommends a gripping Argentinian crime story about gender violence and the weaponisation of religion

GEORGE FOGARTY is unsettled by a brilliant concert that stands on the shoulders of immigrant Jamaican heritage without reaching out a hand to the Jamaican people

New releases from Steve Swallow, Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts, and Ady Johnson

When the ravages of Alzheimer’s leave an elderly woman marooned in painful memories of October 1950, her grandchild comes up with a creative strategy.

New releases from Simone White, Brass Funkeys, and Souad Massi 

Is this the way to rehearse industrial relations? SCOTT ALSWORTH immerses himself in a roleplay game that is being offered as an education tool to unions

In this comparison of Britain pre- and post Thatcher, WILL POMORE applauds the analysis, but distrusts the solutions offered

SUE TURNER is compelled by a history that shows how far a country can turn in on itself to collude with abuses of power

RON JACOBS is persuaded by the parallel drawn between Charles Manson and Donald Trump

ANDREW MURRAY welcomes a fascinating account of the struggle in Puerto Rico for democracy and independence

MARIA DUARTE, SCOTT ALSWORTH, ANDY HEDGECOCK and ANGUS REID review The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford, Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway, Time and Water, and Strictly Ballroom

MARIA DUARTE defends a solid, late-career Spielberg conspiracy flick that calls for empathy in a hostile world

Chris Searle speaks to former bandmate CHRIS BISCOE about the committed socialist jazzman, Mike Westbrook

STEVE JOHNSON recommends a beautiful album of songs that celebrate summer, from May Day onwards

by Monica Manolachi

New releases from Joe Wilkes, Honey and the Bear, and Hannah James and Toby Kuhn

While people keep pigeons around the world today, new evidence suggests this tradition is millennia old, says WILL SMITH

Reviews of T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, Tamikrest, and Dub Colossus  

BOB NEWLAND recommends a radio play about the covert action against the apartheid regime

Given the power of the live experience, MIK SABIERS recommends Jon Spencer’s new album

BOB NEWLAND appreciates an important contribution to the debate about how slavery helped to build the wealth of Western companies and states

WILL PODMORE admires an account of the liberation of Berlin that overthrows the conventional US army-inspired account

MARJORIE MAYO recommends a highly useful guide to the benefits and hazards of different approaches to immigration

PAUL DONOVAN recommends a thorough explanation of why Starmer’s Labour travels light on policy, and bending to knee to neoliberalism

KENNY MONROSE recommends a new exhibition that highlights the significance of Black British music

CAYENNA PONCHIONE-BAILEY celebrates a new recording of all the surviving works of a great female composer and equal of Mozart

This right-wing conspiracy theory is used to justify the coercive measures against gender, race and labour rights that best serve capitalism, attests GAVIN O’TOOLE

The bard celebrates two other fine practitioners of the art, and laments a lost brewer

MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O’CONNOR and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Savage House, Enzo, Madfabulous, and Erupcja

ANGUS REID is bowled over by an exuberant film about the making of Keith Jarrett’s legendary concert

CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician

by John Chinaka Onyech

TONY BURKE speaks to Malian singer, songwriter and guitarist FATOUMATA DIAWARA

SUSAN DARLINGTON is fascinated by an exhibition that explores a colonial display to reveal the overlooked histories of migration and protest that continue to shape Bradford today

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

KENNY MacASKILL relishes a fictionalised account of the life and death of the principled Irish anti-colonialist, executed for betraying his English imperial masters

Aussie mining corporation murder, Liverpudlian ex-cop amnesia, a naive vigilante tries to reset capitalism, and the riddle of the dead psychoanalyst

SYLVIA HIKINS is persuaded by an entertaining play that the true miracle of Lourdes would be for attitudes toward disability to change

New releases from World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation, Bjorn Meyer, and Luca Longobardi  

New releases from Rosa Walton, Paul McCartney, and Aidan Thorne & Jason Ball

JONATHAN TAYLOR reviews a collection of short stories wherein news - and the absence of news - changes lives

On the centenary of her birth, JOHN GREEN celebrates the life — and politics — of Marilyn Monroe

NADIA JOSEPH welcomes a survey of the role that TV played in the debate over apartheid and race relations in Britain

ALEX HALL welcomes the memoir of a prominent British academic of Ugandan/Zimbabwean heritage

JAMIE BRITTON recommends this fine analysis of the architectural, ecological and infrastructural destruction of the Gaza Strip

RON JACOBS welcomes a sharp, intelligent and witty exposé of the corruption and right-wing politics that have taken over international professional football

GORDON PARSONS is disappointed by Kenneth Branagh’s lightweight Prospero in an ambitious rendition of the play

MARIA DUARTE, JOHN GREEN and ANGUS REID review Power Ballad, Landmarks, My Mother’s Wedding, and Fairyland

MARIA DUARTE recommends a truly immersive crime thriller that explores the consequences of creative paralysis

Chris Searle speaks to bassist PAUL ROGERS

by Abeer Ameer

MARJ MAYO recommends a well illustrated and very positive account of an extraordinary period in local government history

RITA DI SANTO takes us through the prize winners, and takes the temperature of a festival that prioritised narratives of exile, state violence and class division

Do frozen colonists carry the virus of empire? Why is monstrosity a great way to describe capital? Was God a dustman?

ANGUS REID recommends two very different, but very entertaining bands with their last live dates this week

Re-releases from Andy Cohen + Eleanor Ellis + William Lee Ellis, Leon Russell with Mary Russell, and Johnny Winter

MIRANDA RICHMOND relishes the gloriously liberated art of Roy Oxlade, and traces his method back to the thinking of David Bomberg, his acknowledged teacher  

Rita Di Santo speaks to Hungarian director LASZLO NEMES about his new film, a portrait of the French Resistance leader and hero, Jean Moulin

The Bard does Bearded Theory, and lodges a complaint about bandnames

GAVIN O’TOOLE recommends a methodical unmasking of the US media’s complicity in the Israeli genocide, that should be a template for what’s needed to bring Britain’s corporate media to book

ALEX HALL is amused at the way the UFOs appear exactly where commercial interests, conspiracies, militarism and right-wing media overlap

MARTIN HALL examines the way the Roman orator took on different schools of philosophy

TOMASZ PIERSCIONEK is intrigued by a the changing significance of its vast areas of forest to Russia’s history

MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review Eagles Of The Republic, The Balloonists, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War

ANDY HEDGECOCK is astonished by a portrait of contemporary Greece, complete with political protest, organised crime and people trafficking, told from the point of view of — wait for it — runaway poultry

by Idris Davies

CHRIS SEARLE recommends a new album featuring Pat Thomas and Ahmed, and marvels at the tempestuous power of a live performance

DENNIS BROE surveys the offerings made at Series Mania Festival

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

GEORGE FOGARTY wallows in a celebration of music as a community practice

SCOTT ALSWORTH assesses the follow up to Disco Elysium, the first-ever genuinely Marxist videogame

MARY CONWAY is exhilarated by an outstanding production of Brecht’s study of the painful sense that working-class people make of war

RITA DI SANTO listens out for the undertow of political film-making at this year’s festival

New releases from Death Cab For Cutie, Kacey Musgraves, and Mountain Of Youth

ANGUS REID applauds the potential of an ambitious show about Gaza, and encourages it to keep its nerve

WILL STONE wallows in a triple helping of classic US protest music

This year’s Venice Biennale marks a major shift in European cultural politics suggests CLARE CAROLIN

MATTHEW HAWKINS considers the opening offering at the National Festival of Korean Dance

ANDY HEDGECOCK welcomes an effective and entertaining overview of those who see erroneous ideas as self-evident truths

KENNY MacASKILL welcomes that rare thing: a readable analysis and explanation of the capitalist economy

RON JACOBS welcomes a beginner’s manual in how to remove bigotry from our individual selves and society at large

The world of fake news, where people don’t believe what they are fed, will lead to a demand for authenticity, suggests PAUL DONOVAN

MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Northern Soul: Still Burning, The Christophers, Orphan, and My Father’s Diaries

LEO BOIX recommends a film that portrays how fascism feeds on ignorance, machismo and myth in isolated communities abandoned by the state

Chris Searle speaks to Syrian/French flautist NAISSAM JALAL

by Harry Gallagher

With thousands of AI‑written, edited or ‘polished’ books being sold, LAURA BEERS hears an eerie echo of Orwell’s ‘novel‑writing machines’

PAUL DONOVAN is intrigued by this depiction of the compromised loyalties of women, under the shadow of Henry VIII’s murderous court

Death comes for Liberals, entitled murder, Vatican hit squads, and fraternising with the Blitz killer

ANDY HEDGECOCK is entertained by a playful novel that embeds a fictional game at its heart

STEVE JOHNSON relishes the inspirational nature of an event which combined great songs with historical narrative

New releases from Public Image Ltd, William Basinski, and John Luther Adams 

GABRIELE NEHER draws attention to an astoundingly skilled Flemish painter who defied the notion that women cannot paint like men

Michael Rosen is in his element with a new show for kids, suggests PAUL DONOVAN

KEVIN DONNELLY outlines how the bourgeois institutions inhibit our ability to to view art in revolutionary ways, and suggests some tactics to overturn it

The Bard pays homage to Hull’s finest promoter and venue, and awards Douze Points to Laibach

STEVE ANDREW welcomes an autobiographical account of activism by a US Marxist journalist that is an inspiring introduction to the struggles of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s

ANDY HEDGECOCK welcomes an accessible - and optimistic - take on our relationship to new technology

JOHN GREEN suggests that a new, biased, and highly readable re-hash of the story of the Cambridge Five be taken with a large pinch of salt

BRENT CUTLER welcomes a timely reminder of the long history of protests and the outdoor spaces in which they takes place

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

LEO BOIX recommends a ravishing, full-bodied drama about the intensely demanding and emotional art of Kabuki theatre

On the day of the election, MARTIN GOLLAN reflects on the perennial relationship between the far-right and the back-hander

by Mohammed Yasser Al-Batniji

RUTH AYLETT recommends that this mixture of memoir, diary and poetry by a young Gazan writer be read as widely as possible

MARY CONWAY is gripped by the powerful emotional journeys portrayed by the parents of the perpetrator and victims of a mass shooting

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

ROBIN STYLES welcomes a boundary pushing work of fiction exploring the life and ideas of the godmother of modernism

LEO BOIX reviews a novel where shadows deceive and mortality looms, and a poetry collection that refuses to dim