An Orwellian dystopia that is the city of Manchester in 2018 draws readers into a fascinating world created by Matt Hill in his novel The Folded Man. The parallels are easy to draw and features within this world are instantly familiar. Hill creates a world which has been all but destroyed, a world which seems Read More
The cover of Helen Mort’s debut collection consists of a photograph of a miner confronting policemen during the 1984 Strike; Division Street promises a work “marked by distance and division”, “[f]rom the clash between striking miners and police to the delicate conflicts in personal relationships”. The title itself announces this. Outwardly then, the book indicates Read More
Robin Robertson’s newest collection Hill of Doors was a book I wanted to review, such was the praise heaped upon it; nominations for the T.S. Eliot prize and the Costa book award only enhanced its literary reputation. The landscape of Robertson’s poetry is fascinating. Variegated cultural strains – history, legend, myth, past and present, contribute Read More
Canadian poet and classicist, Anne Carson, has followed up The Autobiography of Red with this stunning “sequel”, Red Doc>. G, the central character, a winged being and herdsman like his mythical namesake, Geryon, is on a road trip with artist, Ida (who looks like a “tough experimental baby”), and his former lover, Herakles, now in Read More
Having read nothing beyond the most basic plot synopsis for Don Jon, I was not expecting much from this screening. I assumed “Jersey-Shore style ladies’ man and porn connoisseur finds love with woman who expects him to change his lifestyle” was going to be a puerile comedy running entirely on sex jokes and cleavage shots. Read More
After spending 6 months researching in Glasgow, Pedro Lenz releases his debut Swiss-German novel Der Goalie bin Ig. What’s special about this book? It is written entirely in the vernacular Swiss-German ‘Mundart’. What’s even more special is that Donal McLaughlin has painstakingly translated the work into a thick, west –Scottish dialect and released the novel Read More
This film begins with the obvious portents: Dr. Ryan Stone (her father wanted a boy), played by Sandra Bullock, is space sick; her ECG levels are off and she can’t adapt to the constant movement of anti-gravity. After only 6 months of intensive NASA training, the medical engineer embarks on her first mission aboard the Read More
John MacKenna writes prolifically, and to acclaim, across the full spectrum – playwriting, novels, short stories, biography, documentary, radio and poetry. He approaches all of these different forms from the tri-fold backdrop of writing, producing and acting. All of this lays the foundation for his third poetry collection, Where Sadness Begins. Collected in four parts, Read More
Short Term 12 is director Destin Cretton’s first feature length film but, if its success is anything to go by, it will not be his last. The film won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2013 SXSW Festival and, on the whole, brings a refreshing subtlety to Read More
In Arabic, Adéle’ means ‘justice’, and it’s wonderful to see that Abdellatif Kechiche’s masterpiece has rightfully received it’s ‘Adéle’ – not only in critical accolades but in global audience attention too. This film is overflowing with subjects to discuss: New Queer Cinema, physicality, use of colour, twenty-first century existentialism (which Adéle defines as “existence, essence; Read More