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
WHILE I might initially have had some misgivings about reviewing a book made up entirely of book reviews, by a few chapters into Militants, Artists and Poets I was quickly convinced that this was going to be an enjoyable and often thought-provoking read, not least in signposting new and original books I hadn’t already encountered.
Clear and relaxed, Burns’s almost effortless style of writing enthusiastically explores a kaleidoscopic range of materials and manages to do so in an fashion that is fair, balanced and thoroughly objective.
A key attraction of this collection is that it generates interest in the most unlikely and often sadly marginalised of
GORDON PARSONS is intrigued by a biography of the Marxist intellectual and author, made from the point of view of his son
JULIA THOMAS unpicks the mental processes that explain why book-to-film adaptations so often disappoint
STEVE ANDREW enjoys an account of the many communities that flourished independently of and in resistance to the empires of old
JOHN HAWKINS welcomes the passion, grief, precision and elegance of an eloquent witness of genocide


