Jimmy watches Countdown and tries to ignore his bills, grief, COPD and frailty. Meanwhile, his carer walks a tightrope between kindness and reality
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(may cause offense)
GAVIN O’TOOLE chuckles through a guide to politically correct usage of the literary canon
An anti-discrimination education workshop at the Auschwitz Jewish Center, Poland, 2019
[Andrzej Rudiak/CC]
JOHN FLINT explores the Appleby Blue development, winner of the Stirling prize 2025
GORDON PARSONS enjoys the wealth of wisdom and the clarity of expression from a dialogue between Chomsky and Mujica
GUILLERMO THOMAS enjoys a survey of the current state of the CIA (aka Langley) from an expert and insider of sorts
MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O CONNOR and JOHN GREEN review The Choral, Belen, Dragonfly, and Colossal Wreck
WILL STONE is frustrated by a performance that chooses to garble the lyrics and drown the songs in reverb
RITA DI SANTO points out the social experience of exploitation and oppression that inform the popular winners at this year’s festival
You Can’t Say That Any More
Ivor Vertue, Abacus, £14.99
AS Washington rapidly begins to resemble imperial Rome under a power-hungry absolutist, one might be tempted to revisit Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, but those of a delicate disposition should be warned, the language and tone of this 1599 theatrical masterpiece is dangerously outdated — and today may cause offence.
Indeed, this staple of English literature is a prime candidate for a revision that drags it kicking and screaming into a modern era in which we must navigate our narrative universe using a compass of overindulgent hyper-sensitivity.
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