GABRIELE NEHER draws attention to an astoundingly skilled Flemish painter who defied the notion that women cannot paint like men
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Papal skulduggery
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by an account of the long history of Catholic Church’s involvement in espionage
SEEING EYE TO EYE: US President Meeting with Pope John Paul II during a visit to Vatican City, 1982
[Public Domain]
The Bard pays homage to Hull’s finest promoter and venue, and awards Douze Points to Laibach
KEVIN DONNELLY outlines how the bourgeois institutions inhibit our ability to to view art in revolutionary ways, and suggests some tactics to overturn it
ANDY HEDGECOCK welcomes an accessible - and optimistic - take on our relationship to new technology
JOHN GREEN suggests that a new, biased, and highly readable re-hash of the story of the Cambridge Five be taken with a large pinch of salt
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a timely reminder of the long history of protests and the outdoor spaces in which they takes place
Vatican Spies
Yvonnick Denoel, Hurst, £25
VATICAN SPIES reveals much about how the Catholic Church developed its own intelligence network, often with the help of other agencies such as the CIA, French and Italian security services.
The interactions with the mafia during World War II period at the behest of the US, and getting caught up with the Mob through various dodgy financial dealings, makes for a fascinating read.
The Catholic Church with its universal reach to 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, connected by a network of parishes and dioceses, amounts to a spy master’s dream. On the face of it virtuous and God-serving, below the surface it is as ruthless and brutal as any other intelligence operation.
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