First off: I loved it. I read it in a handful of sittings and struggled to put it down. It’s funny, charming, sad, loving, resplendent – it’s Girl, Woman, Other. Schlocky introduction aside, part of the reason I took so long to write this review (I finished the book several weeks ago) is that I…
Category: Politics
Where I get hot-and-heavy at the collar about politics, for my sins.
What’s Your Name Man?
How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore – and a Scotsman – dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar? Such is the question which ignites Hamilton: An American Musical, the trail-blazing blitz of a show…
The RITUAL, POLITICS & POWER of Our World
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve never seen the term ‘ritual’ used much to describe life in the UK. It’s almost always imbued with a kind of exoticism and alienness, evoking images of localism, ancient heritage, simplicity. It is, essentially, othered. It’s also, obviously, complete bullshit, as David Kertzer’s Ritual, Politics & Power illustrates…
A Kingdom of Posh Boys
How big is the world? It’s a question with an answer in constant flux. The world was once divided into four-walled rooms, extending only as far as a fence or front door. It is also what’s told in technicolour from behind a glass screen, images and shapes that might not make sense but seem to…
The Personal is Political in DOWNSIZING
I burned through Tom Watson’s Downsizing in the first two days of 2020 and found it indelibly refreshing. Partly this was because it’s rare to read a book by a politician which isn’t entirely about politics (or so we think); but largely, because the mere existence of Downsizing is so unexpected. Watson illustrates this in…
Were They Really SERVANTS OF THE PEOPLE?
I have never been one of those on the left who despises New Labour. Though I am firmly of the left and believe New Labour ultimately failed to embark on the necessary structural reforms of society and our political system (and, of course, Iraq), I do not think it valuable to consider it some Tory-lite…
Is This HOW DEMOCRACY ENDS?
Much ink has been spilt since 2016 on the question of whether democracy is coming to an end. The rise of right-wing strongmen to positions of elected office in Brazil, Turkey, the Philippines, the United States and the United Kingdom, amongst others, men who routinely express a greater desire for self-preservation than for the preservation…
Haven’t You Heard of HAVEN’T YOU HEARD?
One of the most common complaints about politics, regardless of country, is that it’s boring. Grey men and women in grey suits and dresses, speaking in a language which feels wholly unfamiliar to the language that we speak and entirely indecipherable. Are they even human? The levels of ambition and sociopathy required for any kind…
Winning was Easy, Young Man, Governing’s Harder
There were three overriding feelings coursing through my body at 22:00 last night. Firstly, the sadness that Labour was suffering its fourth election defeat and en route to being out of government for at least fourteen years. Secondly, the cold recognition that all of my public and private predictions of how the result would go…
WE WERE EIGHT YEARS IN POWER
The word I associate Ta Nehisi-Coates’s writing with is ‘ethereal.’ Throughout his work, Nehisi-Coates conjures up myth and mysticism within his subject matter, be it casting Michael Jackson and Kanye West with divine providence or evoking the pride and power which he feels in being “the progeny of slaves.” Myth is infantilised: “I know now…
Jasper Cresdee-Hyde 