MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Beyond Caring
Damning indictment of unemployment in the Thatcher era
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
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.
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