RITA DI SANTO points out the social experience of exploitation and oppression that inform the popular winners at this year’s festival
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Sci-fi and fantasy with Mat Coward
The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman, The Plague Stones by James Brogden, No Way by SJ Morden and Fleet of Knives by Gareth L Powell
[Karen Nadine/Creative Commons]
PETER MASON is tickled by a new book and exhibition that mine the rotten anachronism of the monarchy for laughs
A Nazi zeppelin whodunnit, death amidst detoxification, a twistaholic’s delight, and noir fiction for criminals
STEVE JOHNSON salutes the mellifluous tones and clear-minded political message of a uniquely relevant Birmingham-born singer-songwriter
STEVE ANDREW enjoys an account of the many communities that flourished independently of and in resistance to the empires of old
TOM STONE urges you to catch the last dates of a New York singer/songwriter, never afraid to challenge her audiences musically or politically
JAN WOOLF examines work that aims to give viewers a material experience of the environments in the polar north and Britain equally affected by the climate crisis
TEENAGER Violet moves with her mother from a city life to look after an ailing relative in a small town hidden in the woods of rural New York in The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman (Titan, £8.99), a debut novel and presumably the first in a series.
To Violet, Four Paths seems like the armpit of America, a dull and insular place cut off from the world. But, as it turns out, her mother's hometown is much worse than boring. It’s deadly.
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Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
The Morning Star sorts the good eggs from the rotten scoundrels of the year
Two new releases from Burkina Faso and Niger, one from French-based Afro Latin The Bongo Hop, and rare Mexican bootlegs