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GORDON PARSONS recommends an entertaining account of the years between Germany’s defeat in WWI and Hitler’s seizure of power
Book: Clearing the fog of a war
Jonathan Hicks, two-thirds of the way through a trilogy of novels on the first world war, tells Paul Simon why we need new perspectives on the conflict as its 100th anniversary draws near
MIGUEL YOSHIDA explains the evolution and influence of the Cuban Casa De Las Americas in joining culture to the revolutionary struggle
ANDY HEDGECOCK is charmed by a skilful adaptation of Tove Jansson’s lyrical portrait of three generations of a family, overcoming grief
ALEX HALL treads warily through a messy, dialectical struggle fought in the mundane machinery of driving licences, criminal law, and birth registries
MICHAL BONCZA, FIONA O’CONNOR, JAMES WALSH and ANGUS REID review Atlas of Disappearance, Love Me Tender, Bouchra, and This Tempting Madness
Flitting between myth and the modern world, Medusa is determined to steer clear of human affairs. When her resolve crumbles, the result is petrifying in every sense
As well as being an emerging fiction writer of considerable talent, Jonathan Hicks is also head teacher at a Cardiff comprehensive and a military historian.
As such, he's as well entitled as any to voice his doubts about the perils of next year's centenary marking the start of the conflict.
"I do come across well-intentioned folk who want to turn commemoration and remembrance into something akin to popular entertainment," he tells me.
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GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a pessimistic novel in which Hitler is removed from history, to little effect
FIONA O’CONNOR questions the achievement of this year’s Orwell prize winner for political fiction
In his fortnightly Borderlands column, MARK SEDDON visits overgrown forts along Offa’s Dyke and reflects on wars past and present
WILL DRY speaks to three former members of the armed forces about the political hypocrisy surrounding Armistice Day, how war is a function of class society, and the far right’s use of militarism and nationalism to divide working people