WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
Praise-songs for memorable women
Naomi Foyle, Natalie Scott, Carolyn Forche and Rachel Burns have produced some outstanding collections
IMPRISONED FOR HER POETRY: Dareen Tatour
[Danielle Alma Ravitzki] 
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
THE TITLE poem of Adamantine (Pighog Press, £13.95) by Anglo-Canadian writer Naomi Foyle, is about Elisabeth Fritzl, held captive as a sex slave for 24 years by her father:
“I don’t know how you did it,/but Elisabeth, you survived./Didn’t starve yourself to death./Didn’t smash your brains out... you were always/your own lodestone,/a glinting adamant/hidden, growing, drilling/through the walls.”
Adamantine is a strong book about strong women like Fritzl, celebrating the tenacity and brilliance of those who refused to break under extreme pressure.
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