STEVEN ANDREW is moved beyond words by a historical account of mining in Britain made from the words of the miners themselves
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When some humans are more equal than others
CAILEAN MCBRIDE welcomes a refreshing and timely study of the way officialdom creates structures that exclude LGBT+ rights and humanity
Toilet block at a park in Brisbane, Australia: the toilet block has two cubicles, both marked as unisex and accessible toilets, and a sink outside of the cubicles for handwashing. / Pic: EMsmile/CC
The bard mourns the loss of comrades and troubadours, and looks for consolation with Black Country Jess
CHRIS MOSS relishes the painting and the life story of a self-taught working-class artist from Warrington
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a star-studded adaptation of Ibsen’s play that is devoid of believable humanity
GORDON PARSONS is fascinated by a unique dream journal collected by a Jewish journalist in Nazi Berlin
Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade, Parthenope, Where Dragons Live and Thunderbolts* reviewed by MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE
CHRIS SEARLE wallows in an evening of high class improvised jazz, and recommends upcoming highlights in May
The Rainbow Trap: Queer Lives, Classifications and the Dangers of Inclusion
Kevin Guyan, Bloomsbury, £20
PUBLICATION can often be something of a long game. From commission through writing to hitting the bookstands, months and sometimes even years can have elapsed. If you’re writing something even vaguely related to current events this can be bad news, especially in these days of wildly accelerated news cycles, because its topicality could have all but evaporated.
The opposite is also true, of course, and a book can be given a boost by an unexpected turn of events. And that, to an extent, is what has happened here. Given the ongoing – and often heated – public discourse on sex and gender, there was never any question of there not being an audience for the Rainbow Trap, but with its publication coming not long after the UK Supreme Court’s controversial ruling on the definition of “woman” under the Equality Act, it has suddenly graduated from a compelling read to an essential one.
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