GORDON PARSONS is bowled over by a skilfully stripped down and powerfully relevant production of Hamlet
The disillusion of a top BBC journalist
JOHN GREEN is disappointed by a marred critique of the British establishment by someone who was part of it
In which we accompany the Bard into Cymru to meet his musical accomplices, young and old
SUE TURNER is inspired by the example of a librarian’s struggle to confront the book-banning movement
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews I Am Martin Parr, September Says, The Monkey, and The Gorge
RITA DI SANTO applauds a touching and witty opener that touches a hot topic in Germany: the future of the immigrant population
SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
Strangeland – How Britain Stopped Making Sense
Jon Sopel, Ebury Press, £22
FROM the start, I was sceptical about this book. After all, someone like Jon Sopel, who was for many years a top BBC correspondent — for eight years its man in Washington — must be completely in tune with Establishment ideology or he would not have been given such a job.
Here he takes a critical look at a country that has dramatically changed since he left it in 2014. “Returning to the UK in some ways has been disconcerting,” he writes. “It is, after all, my home; a country I love and am proud of. But either it’s changed, or I have. Maybe both. It just feels like a strange land. This book is, I suppose, about Britishness — the values that have guided us.”
More from this author
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
A landmark work of gay ethnography, an avant-garde fusion of folk and modernity, and a chance comment in a great interview
ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes
Similar stories
Despite mainstream political podcasts drowning in centrist drivel, Labour Left Podcast offers an authentic grassroots perspective from decades of working-class struggle and resistance, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
JOHN GREEN welcomes a significant contribution to the discussion of the urgent need to reform Britain’s failed governmental system
In the third of his four-part series on the general election, PETER KENWORTHY looks at Keir Starmer's moves to shift Labour right, and how some independent candidates used that to challenge the party
With respect for the authors’ intentions, JOHN GREEN demonstrates the lack of class consciousness that undermines their critique of dysfunctional Britain