MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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Another magnificent Mantel
PAUL DONOVAN recommends a superb conclusion to the writer’s trilogy of novels on Thomas Cromwell
MAJOR MANIPULATOR: Thomas Cromwell, portrayed by Wenceslaus Hollar
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ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
The Mirror and the Light
by Hilary Mantel
Fourth Estate, £25
WITH The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel concludes her trilogy of novels exploring both the life of Thomas Cromwell and Tudor politics.
It takes Cromwell from the height of his powers in 1536, when he was awarded the Order of the Garter by Henry VIII and extensive lands across the country, to the executioner’s block in the summer of 1540.
En route, Mantel follows all the twists and turns of his being a major political manipulator at the heart of Tudor politics and Cromwell’s constant battle against the old noble order, who view him as of low birth and never really “one of us.”
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