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MARJORIE MAYO recommends an accessible and unsettling novel that uses a true incident of death in the Channel to raise questions of wider moral responsibility
Beyond Caring
Damning indictment of unemployment in the Thatcher era
MIK SABIERS wallows in a night of political punk and funk that fires both barrels at Trump
Reasonable radicalism, death in Abu Dhabi, locked-room romance, and sleuthing in the Blitz
SIMON DUFF recommends a new album from renowned composer and oud player Anour Brahem.
JAMES WALSH has a great night in the company of basketball players, quantum physicists and the exquisite timing of Rosie Jones
A New Awakening: Adventures In British Jazz 1966 - 1971, G3, and Buck Owens
JAMES WALSH is moved by an exhibition of graphic art that relates horrors that would be much less immediate in other media
UNEMPLOYMENT, as anyone who has experienced it for even a short time knows, is soul-destroying and humiliating.
Every unemployed person is made to feel that it’s their fault and that society has no obligation towards them. It’s nothing to do with a heartless and oppressive system.
That’s why Salford-born photographer Paul Graham’s book Beyond Caring, first self-published in 1985, is as explosive as ever. The system hasn’t changed, only the faces of the unemployed.
More from this author
JOHN GREEN recommends a German comedy that celebrates the old GDR values of solidarity, community and a society not dominated by consumerism
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
Mountains of research show that hardcore material harms children, yet there are still no simple measures in place
Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds
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PAUL TUCKER asks whether a new access scheme can get more working-class people into the TV industry
MIKE QUILLE salutes an extensive body of photographic work that documents, with subtlety and compassion, working-class lives in north-east England
JOHN GREEN appreciates two photobooks that study the single room of a homeless hostel resident, and a council estate in Exeter
PAUL DONOVAN recommends a skilful adaptation of Alan Bleasdale’s 1980s epic TV drama