WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
Dearth of insight mars intriguing memoir
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
Longer Days – Memoirs of an Edwardian Childhood and a Rebellious Youth
By Fred Roy
Hazel Roy £12.99
FRED ROY’S death just short of his 92nd birthday left his daughter with a dilemma: what to do with thousands of pages of scribbled notes, diaries and press cuttings, constituting the outline of his memoir. For years they remained in an old chest, until finally pieced together and transcribed during lockdown, creating a fascinating chronicle of a vanished London from 1907 through to 1946.
Roy, a working-class lad, growing up in south London, experienced WWI as a child and WWII as a young adult. His vivid descriptions of life for working-class people in London during the first half of the 20th century conjure up the harsh realities but also the small joys of a care-free life he experienced as a youngster.
The book’s dramatic, full-colour cover, showing a dashing-looking author, a squadron of Nazi bombers, a hammer and sickle and moments from his life, promises an exciting read but the text doesn’t quite live up to that promise.
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JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America
JOHN GREEN is stirred by an ambitious art project that explores solidarity and the shared memory of occupation
JOHN GREEN applauds an excellent and accessible demonstration that the capitalist economy is the biggest threat to our existence
JOHN GREEN isn’t helped by the utopian fantasy of a New York Times bestseller that ignores class struggle and blames the so-called ’progressives’
