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GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
Foreigners by Ken Fuller
Satire on expats in Asia leaves a sour taste
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
THE WORLD of the Western ex-pat in Asia is ripe for fictionalisation. Yet it’s a terrain potentially prone to unpleasant stereotypes and its harsh realities of inequality and predation require a delicate and skilful touch.
Many of us have an image of the expat in Thailand or the Philippines as an older white male seeking an easy life of sun, sea, cheap beer and sex tourism.
In Foreigners, a sprawling satirical caper by long-time Philippines resident Ken Fuller, the image is reinforced though also undercut by characterisations that are sometimes sympathetic, sometimes repulsive.
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