GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
A shrewd observation of the absurdities of modern labour
Lee Scott’s native Runcorn a simulacrum for Churchtown
[Rept0n1x/Creative Commons]
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an excellently crafted new musical that explores the life and death of Ruth Ellis
PAUL DONOVAN is tickled by the excruciating take-downs of one of the funniest, wittiest, political writers around.
RON JACOBS points out, via a transcription of Kissinger’s secret recordings, that Trump could never have existed without Nixon and Kissinger
ELLIS RAE is persuaded that the advantages of the ‘talking cure’ are superior to the treatment of mental illness with drugs
JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey
Swan Songs
Lee Scott
Repeater £10.99
THERE aren’t enough novels about work – despite it taking up so much time, of each day, of each life.
Lee Scott’s debut novel Swan Songs is about working in a Big Pharma factory where a mysterious chemical solution is transferred into vials that are packed and then dispatched.
Our hero and narrator, Leonard Swanson, has been compelled by the Job Centre in Churchtown (a simulacrum for Scott’s native Runcorn) to take on shifts as a line-picker. His job is menial in the extreme, but also soul-destroying because Leonard is an aspiring rap legend and would much prefer to be at home working on “the best album ever” – the Swan Songs of the title.
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