WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
A shrewd observation of the absurdities of modern labour
Lee Scott’s native Runcorn a simulacrum for Churchtown
[Rept0n1x/Creative Commons] 
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
Swan Songs
Lee Scott
Repeater £10.99
THERE aren’t enough novels about work – despite it taking up so much time, of each day, of each life.
Lee Scott’s debut novel Swan Songs is about working in a Big Pharma factory where a mysterious chemical solution is transferred into vials that are packed and then dispatched.
Our hero and narrator, Leonard Swanson, has been compelled by the Job Centre in Churchtown (a simulacrum for Scott’s native Runcorn) to take on shifts as a line-picker. His job is menial in the extreme, but also soul-destroying because Leonard is an aspiring rap legend and would much prefer to be at home working on “the best album ever” – the Swan Songs of the title.
More from this author
CHRIS MOSS relishes the painting and the life story of a self-taught working-class artist from Warrington
CHRIS MOSS pores over a stimulating and stirring collage of ideas and imagery generated by the 2016 referendum
CHRIS MOSS recommends a perceptive analysis of the dichotomy between working-class identity and its repudiation by contemporary society
