MAYER WAKEFIELD applauds Rosamund Pike’s punchy and tragic portrayal of a multi-tasking mother and high court judge

IN BIM Adewunmi’s Hoard, two twenty-something sisters of Nigerian descent invite their third and youngest sister for a meal at their smart east London flat. Chiefly, they want to run their eye over her new American boyfriend.
He makes a favourable impression and the sisters approve. But the unexpected arrival of their combative, larger-than-life mother Wura throws a major spanner in the works of the get-together.
Until now, the anxious siblings have kept the boyfriend secret from Wura and her tornado-like appearance proves to be the catalyst for a long suppressed argument — not just about her overweening influence but her increasingly eccentric and decidedly non-smart living arrangements, about which the daughters are habitually embarrassed in front of potential suitors.

PETER MASON is wowed (and a little baffled) by the undeniably ballet-like grace of flamenco

PETER MASON is surprised by the bleak outlook foreseen for cricket’s future by the cricketers’ bible

PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
