ANDY HEDGECOCK is entertained by a playful novel that embeds a fictional game at its heart
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The Good Soldier Sam by Sam Berkovitz, with Simon Blumenfeld
Fascinating social history of a poverty-stricken East End of London by Sam Berkovitz
Death comes for Liberals, entitled murder, Vatican hit squads, and fraternising with the Blitz killer
New releases from Public Image Ltd, William Basinski, and John Luther Adams
GABRIELE NEHER draws attention to an astoundingly skilled Flemish painter who defied the notion that women cannot paint like men
The Bard pays homage to Hull’s finest promoter and venue, and awards Douze Points to Laibach
KEVIN DONNELLY outlines how the bourgeois institutions inhibit our ability to to view art in revolutionary ways, and suggests some tactics to overturn it
THE GOOD Solider Sam is the memoir of the late Sam Berkovitz, who with the help of author and journalist Simon Blumenfeld — also now sadly deceased — tells a life story which begins in 1905 in Stepney, where he was born to Jewish immigrant parents from Romania.
He spent the majority of his life either in the poorly paid lower end of the tailoring trade or signing on the dole when work dried up. Living with his wife in the same humble flat for 60 years, even in relatively prosperous times they rarely had more than a few pounds to rub together.
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