JOHN GREEN surveys the remarkable career of screenwriter Malcolm Hulke and the essential part played by his membership of the Communist Party
Uncanny echoes
ALAN MORRISON hears the tradition of English Modernism in an unusually accomplished debut volume of poetry
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Last Breath, Sister Midnight, Opus, and The Electric State
HENRY BELL is moved by the account of scientists under seige in Leningrad who preferred to starve rather than sacrifice their life-saving work
RUTH AYLETT recommends two anthologies: one that bears witness to refugee and immigrant experiences, and the other to our political relationship to water
SETH SANDRONSKY appreciates a fresh take on a 100-year-old novel that helps to contextualise the current moment of conspicuous wealth, waste and climate chaos
A no-nonsense ex-Garda female cop, Scandi-noir’s newest flawed hero, the lure of Aussie gold, and unexpected decency in Silicon valley
JAN WOOLF doubts that soft-core musical is the best way to transmit an important story of heroism and resistance
New Famous Phrases
Daniel Hinds, Broken Sleep Books, £12.99
SINCE Smokestack Books closed its vital operation at the end of last year, after a prolific two decades, there is now a gaping space in the publication of working-class poetry. Broken Sleep Books is one established press which specifically specialises in publishing working-class poets.
Daniel Hinds hails from Newcastle, has been published in numerous notable journals, won prizes and acquired various commissions, and Famous New Phrases is his debut volume. Two different critical quotes accompanying the book each using the term “word-hoard” (from Old English “wordhord”) to refer to Hinds’s distinctive vocabulary. One in particular is “brae” which is a Lowland Scots term for the brow of a hill.
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
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