MAYER WAKEFIELD applauds Rosamund Pike’s punchy and tragic portrayal of a multi-tasking mother and high court judge
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Sona Jobarteh, Kings Place London
Sona Jobarteh demonstrates why she's one of the most exciting kora players around
Kora queen: Sona Jobarteh
[Schorle/Creative Commons] 
FIONA O CONNOR recommends an unflinching depiction of child sexual abuse and its aftershocks, set in a working-class Liverpool family
New releases from Paul Weller, Wet Leg, and Dino Saluzzi
PAUL DONOVAN relishes the spectacle of a 1950s detective in pursuit of a 500-year-old murder mystery
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
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
BEAUTIFULLY poised, strikingly good-looking and quietly charismatic, Sona Jobarteh is guaranteed to hold the attention of any audience with her superbly dextrous kora playing.
Born and raised in London but from a Gambian clan on her father’s side that has boasted a number of kora virtuosos, she’s the first woman ever to make a living out of playing the instrument. For seven centuries, it has been a male-only preserve within West African griot families such as her own.
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