CATHERINE STEEL relishes a compelling novel about Augustus’s right hand man, but misses the politics, the cultural shifts, and more detail about his restoration of Rome
REACHING new audiences can be a hard slog for songwriters and spoken word artists, but a new initiative by Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Culture Matters might ease that burden a little.
The new Bread and Roses Songwriting and Spoken Word Award, open to everyone regardless of trade union membership, aims to encourage songwriters and spoken-word performers to write material meaningful to working-class people and communities and to encourage those communities to engage more with songwriting and spoken word.
There's a £100 cash prize for each of the top five entries to be judged by CWU and Culture Matters, with the winners performing at the CWU conference in Bournemouth in April.
Wales is second from the bottom in terms of cultural services in the EU. HELEDD FYCHAN believes that needs to change if the country is to prosper
Artists should not be consigned to a life of precarious working – they deserve dignity and proper workers’ rights, argues ZITA HOLBOURNE
CWU leader DAVE WARD tells Ben Chacko a strategy to unite workers on class lines is needed – and sectoral collective bargaining must be at its heart



