MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state
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Poetry of praise and protest
RUTH AYLETT recommends a new collection that is direct and open to all, both conversational and radical
Jackie Kay MBE, Chancellor of the University of Salford, April 29 2015
[University of Salford Press Office/CC]
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
May Day
By Jackie Kay, Picador
£10.99
Jackie Kay has been a leading British poet for a good 30 years and she was Scotland’s Makar (poet laureate) from 2016-21. Her poetry is direct and open to all, and her voice is distinctive: both conversational and radical.
May Day is her latest collection. Its title has two meanings, represented by two poems, one called MayDay, and the other May Day. The first is a signal of distress at the recent deaths of her parents, while the second is a celebration of their activist lives as committed socialists and trade unionists, including many years in the British Communist Party.
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