GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
A military voice worth listening to
IAN SINCLAIR recommends a book that lucidly addresses many an aspect of the institution that is the British army
DIFFERENT BATTLEFIELD: British Army soldiers reinforce an embankment at Stainforth, near Doncaster, after a flooding
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
Veteranhood: Rage and Hope in British Ex-Military Life
by Joe Glenton
Repeater Books, £10.99
A WIDE-RANGING memoir-polemic, Joe Glenton sees his new book is an attempt “to address the commonly held idea that we vets are all irredeemably right-wing.”
Glenton, who served in Afghanistan with the British army’s Royal Logistical Corps before going Awol in 2007 and refusing to fight in the war, proves to be an excellent guide to this complex and often controversial topic, deploying lashings of black humour and military lingo (explained for the uninitiated).
Rather than “a reactionary blob,” he argues the military has always been a contested space, with a rich, though largely unknown, history of progressive dissent and resistance in the ranks.
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