MIK SABIERS savours the first headline solo show of the stalwart of Brighton’s indie-punk outfit Blood Red Shoes
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A tale of revolution and friendship
RON JACOBS recommends a painstaking study of the communists and revolutionaries who congregated in Moscow after 1917
Lux Hotel - the unofficial headquarters of the Comintern
New releases reviewed by IAN SINCLAIR
STEVEN ANDREW is moved beyond words by a historical account of mining in Britain made from the words of the miners themselves
CAILEAN MCBRIDE welcomes a refreshing and timely study of the way officialdom creates structures that exclude LGBT+ rights and humanity
The bard mourns the loss of comrades and troubadours, and looks for consolation with Black Country Jess
CHRIS MOSS relishes the painting and the life story of a self-taught working-class artist from Warrington
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a star-studded adaptation of Ibsen’s play that is devoid of believable humanity
Hotel Lux: An Intimate History of Communism’s Forgotten Radicals
Maurice J. Casey, Footnote, £22
IMAGINE a political and cultural revolution that shakes the world. Now imagine you are part of that revolution. In fact, part of your role is to celebrate its initial success as manifested in the country where it is occurring, while another is to spread the word in the country you reside in. This means writing, speaking and organising. It also means being aware of and staying ahead of the enforcers of the structures threatened by the revolution’s success.
This scenario was a reality in the wake of Russia’s 1917 October Revolution. Hundreds of revolutionaries (maybe thousands) boarded trains and ships with tickets to Moscow.
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Although he was a legendary organiser in South Africa — where he was an early advocate of racial unity, and he was finally buried with honours in Moscow — it is in his native Wales that this hero needs recognition, writes ROBERT GRIFFITHS
RON JACOBS recommends an evocative novel that explores the time that Ho Chi Minh spent in Paris
GAVIN O’TOOLE applauds a uniquely nuanced people’s history of the revolutionary period, told from below