GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
Confessions of a Barista on Platform 1
Light, pacy and very funny, Joanna Murray's coffee-shop chronicle is a great read
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an excellently crafted new musical that explores the life and death of Ruth Ellis
PAUL DONOVAN is tickled by the excruciating take-downs of one of the funniest, wittiest, political writers around.
RON JACOBS points out, via a transcription of Kissinger’s secret recordings, that Trump could never have existed without Nixon and Kissinger
ELLIS RAE is persuaded that the advantages of the ‘talking cure’ are superior to the treatment of mental illness with drugs
JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey
IN WHAT’S a journey of self-discovery, via owning and running a coffee shop on St Leonards station in East Sussex, Joanna Murray interacts with a whole variety of great and evocatively named characters, from Stig the station manager to The Pirate, the Ice Queen, Dot Cotton and Station Man.
And there’s Harriet Harpie, whose rudeness finally gets her banned, leading to the memorable outburst: “That bitch wouldn’t serve me because I wouldn’t say please.”
There are amusing recurrent themes, such as people asking for the toilet but being told that there isn’t one on the station or in the coffee shop — not that this stops them repeatedly asking the same question.
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