MARJORIE MAYO recommends an accessible and unsettling novel that uses a true incident of death in the Channel to raise questions of wider moral responsibility
Unexpected outcomes in Swiss Family Robinson update
Queenstown, New Zealand
MIK SABIERS wallows in a night of political punk and funk that fires both barrels at Trump
Reasonable radicalism, death in Abu Dhabi, locked-room romance, and sleuthing in the Blitz
SIMON DUFF recommends a new album from renowned composer and oud player Anour Brahem.
JAMES WALSH has a great night in the company of basketball players, quantum physicists and the exquisite timing of Rosie Jones
A New Awakening: Adventures In British Jazz 1966 - 1971, G3, and Buck Owens
JAMES WALSH is moved by an exhibition of graphic art that relates horrors that would be much less immediate in other media
Mr Peacock’s Possessions
by Lydia Syson
(Zaffre Publishing, £12.99)
LYDIA SYSON’S earlier books for young adults, A World Between Us, about British involvement in the Spanish civil war and the Paris Commune in Liberty’s Fire, were rightly praised for their historical accuracy and dramatic narratives.
Her latest appears to straddle both young and adult fiction but cannot decide which age group it wishes to address.
The writer again tackles a critical historical period, this time the late 19th century in Pacific Oceana, where the British Empire still holds sway. Victoria is on the throne, slavery is still being practised and fundamentalist belief becomes a useful alibi to defend imperial exploits and promote blinkered thinking and inhumanity.
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An absorbing metaphor for contemporary Western societies is recommended by PAUL SIMON
PAUL SIMON falls under the spell of little known authors from an island at the edge of the world
