[Flight Lieutenant Smetham/CC/Rolando Paolo Guerzoni/Jan Woolf]
HENRY BELL is fascinated by the underlying curiosities and contradictions of one of the great poets of the Mediterranean
DAVID RENTON recommends a books that explores the ways in which disabled people are made to feel both of and not part of this world
JONATHAN TAYLOR is fascinated by the philosophical problems that permeate the art of life-writing
GORDON PARSONS steps warily in between the lines of Britain’s most famous diarist
SIMON DUFF recommends a recording of Arvo Part that takes the listener on a pilgrimage through seemingly distant times and events of the Bible
REVIEW writing is a hybrid of art and journalism. It’s not writing about the play/book/exhibition — or awarding stars (always a tricky thing for me) but getting under the skin of the thing. There’s nothing as rewarding as writing about art when it helps your own. Find its heart and soul. Both likely to be present as it has been published or produced, and, after all, all art comes from community.
I start the year with my tribute to dreamboat Leonard Cohen’s Dance Me at Sadlers Wells, a ballet describing the life and work of Leonard Cohen. I enjoyed it. How would Cohen be responding the world now I wonder? Jewish — he would have played a huge part in today’s anti-war movement.
Flit to April and it’s my turn. I both write about and get reviewed for my play Blood Gold and Oil. Invited to write about the personal and political energies behind the work, I turn in The Fatal Englishman, giving the background to my interest in TE Lawrence. Our dear comrade editor used the word “obsession” — to which I took umbrage (such a brownish, disgruntled word).
JAN WOOLF is beguiled by the tempting notion that Freud psychoanalysed Hitler in a comedy that explores the vulnerability of a damaged individual
JAN WOOLF finds out where she came from and where she’s going amid Pete Townshend’s tribute to 1970s youth culture
