WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
Twenty-first Century Poetry
Reviews of latest collections from Ian McMillan and Culture Matters
UNIQUE: Ian McMillan
[Steve Bowbrick/Creative Commons] 
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
WHAT should poets write about this “golden age” of self-congratulation, authoritarianism, mendacity and xenophobia? What can they possibly say that will not be drowned out by the victory march of smirking fools and their cheerleaders in the national media?
Of course, some will rush for the prizes and awards still on offer and it will be interesting to see which poets can’t resist getting their hands on some of the £120 million that the British government is proposing to spend on the Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland next year.
No doubt, some poets will continue to play in the dressing-up box of narcissism and exhibitionism. Others will probably fall into sullen anger, despair and silence.
More from this author
ANDY CROFT rallies poets to the impossible task of speaking truth to a tin-eared politician
New titles from Fran Lock, Richard Skinner, Tara Bergin and Mark A Murphy
New titles from Kurdish poet İlhan Sami Comak and Volker Braun, one of Germany’s most important writers
New collections from Neil Fulwood, Kevin Higgins, Clare Saponia, Nora Blascsok and Peter Godfrey
