CONRAD LANDIN thrills to the voice of 79-year-old Emmylou Harris, that is enriched rather than compromised by the gravel of experience
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Jonathan Coe - A novelist who takes politics seriously
JOHN GREEN recommends that rare thing, a British novelist who is politically aware, entertaining and who writes to the moment
CLASS STRUGGLE: In the long history of strikes at British Leyland, (L) in 1956 a striker at the Austin car works at Longbridge, Birmingham, attempts to stop a vehicle entering the factory. The strike was called by trade unions following the dismissal of 6,000 workers
The debut novel by Uruguayan Eugenia Ladra, and poetry by Gerardo Diego
RICHARD MURGATROYD appreciates a study that urges us to think about water differently, as a living entity with its own logic and intelligence
New releases from Zulu Guitar Blues, Fela Kuti, and Amadou & Mariam
IAN SINCLAIR revels in the reissue of great recordings by one of the most recognisable and radical voices in British music
SIMON PARSONS applauds an original, visual and movement-based take on the birth and death of a relationship
WE are living through one of the worst crises of capitalism globally, and in Britain we have consecutively experienced several of the most incompetent and callous governments in living memory. But where are the contemporary novelists tackling this rich seam of material? I don’t see any Jonathan Swifts or George Orwells, not even anyone like US authors Philip Roth or Barbara Kingsolver.
There is, however, a lone exception and that is Jonathan Coe. He is the only contemporary English novelist I know of who grapples viscerally with the political and social crisis we are experiencing.
Born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, in 1961, he has long been interested in both music and literature.
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