JOHN GREEN relishes the record of a life well lived in the service of the fight for justice and socialism

EWAN KOTZ got to the Jacaranda Baltic in Liverpool only to be taken by strong songwriting of the emerging all-women Lime Garden

TONY BURKE talks to Garth Cartwright author of Princes Amongst Men — Journeys With Romani Gypsy Musicians

The Star's critics ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review The Blue Trail, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Colours of Time, Glenrothan

JOHN GREEN has reservations about a film that tries hard to rise above the cliches but in the end fails to do so

Reviews of a compelling account of a tragedy that shook Chile in 2005, a poetry collection about home and belonging, and a bilingual poetry collection on migration, fire, and art, drawing on the work of Hieronymus Bosch

SETH SANDRONSKY recommends a production that looks back at the political Tinseltown in the mid-1970s when US cinema ‘didn’t pander to trends’

CHRIS SEARLE on Mike Westbrook who died aged 90

FINOLA SCOTT relishes a collection of verse in Scots that, among other things, meditates on the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu

STEVE JOHNSON speaks to JIM MORAY about an album that marks 25 years since his first

by Chalice Am Bergris

SAHAR MARANLOU explores a novella, newly translated and republished in English that tells the history of Iran through women’s bodies