Archives for Reviews - Page 4
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
The Trial of Julian Assange By Nils MelzerPublished by Verso, 2022, hardback, £20 at Bookbuster, 39 Queens Road. Review by Tim Barton In HIP194 Nick Pelling gives a satirical perspective…
Blue Magic
By Nick Pelling I have to admit that when I first read that India Blue described herself as a ‘faerie-folk musician’ I could not help but feel that this was,…
BOOK REVIEW
Mired in the Mizzle of Time Kent Barker reviews Winchelsea, the new novel by Alex Preston It may be perverse to feel proprietorial about someone who has been dead for…
Witchcraft on the Stade
Review by Gareth Stevens It is always a ‘pinch yourself’ moment to sit in the East Hastings Angling Association club at The Stade and to realise that in such a…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
Suburban Socialism (or Barbarism) By Oly Durose Published by Repeater Books, 2022, rrp £ from Bookbuster, Queens Road Review by Tim Barton Here is James Meek, in the London Review…
HIP POETRY READ
death by the poetry of kindness By Pete Donohue Holy&intoxicated PublicationsSigned limited edition (25) chapbook, £5, €5, $5 REVIEW BY CLAIRE RICHARDSON How do you review poetry? Like many art…
THEATRE REVIEW
A Hippie Macbeth By Kent Barker Since Stanislavski, actors preparing a role seek to uncover motivation. And while I hardly dare question the Bard, I wonder if some of his…
BOOKBUTER REVIEW
Knocking Out My Demons By Paul HugginsPublished by Verite CM, 2021, paperback, £ at Bookbuster, 39 Queens Road. Review by Tim Barton Paul is Hastings born and bred, and pretty…
BOOK REVIEW
Mister Hastings By Nick Pelling The eighteenth century is an unloved sort of century. Certainly, British history in that era is hardly taught in school at all. Instead, students are…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
Edible Plants By Geoff DannPublished by Anthropozoic Books, 2021 softback, £25 rrpAvailable from Bookbuster Books Review by Tim Barton Five years ago Hastings-based Geoff Dann authored Edible Mushrooms: A Forager’s…
The Real Deal
By Nick Pelling Many of us have no doubt dreamt of being an artist; breaking the digital chains that now ensnare us all. But reality, in the form of needing…
Magnificent Madness?
Nick Pelling attends the St Leonards’ premiere of a documentary about the making of a film by the former Monty Python star Terry Gilliam. Have you ever thought that a…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
Everything, All the Time, Everywhere: How We became Postmodern By Stuart Jeffries Published by Verso, 2021 hardback, £20 rrp Review by Tim Barton Jeffries is not seeking to give a…
Capturing Lives Up Close
By Ben Cornwell Documentaries are by no means a new form of film. But their popularity appears to have grown in recent years, particularly with streaming giants such as Netflix…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
COP26 Part 3 Who Owns The Wind? By David McDermott HughesPublished by Verso, 2021 Paperback, £ rrp Review Tim Barton Here we are post-COP26, hopefully angry at the usual greenwash…
HIP CHILDREN’S READ
Carried Away with the CarnivalWritten and illustrated by Ed Boxall Published by Pearbox Press, 2021Paperback picture book, £ full colour pages, Ages 3-8 Hastings-based children’s writer and illustrator Ed Boxall’s…
Blooming Opera
Seventeen-year-old music student Tom Bruges reviews Barefoot Opera’s community production of BloomBritannia, having taken part as one of the choirs brought in to amplify to performance. As the final…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
COP26 Part 2 Ending Fossil Fuels: Why Net Zero is not EnoughBy Holly Jean BuckPublished by Verso, 2021 Paperback, £ rrp Review Tim Barton Here is a warning, from Bill…
Yabba Dubba Do!
Review by Kent Barker What’s in a name? If it’s Montague or Capulet it may be obvious but when it comes to musical genres it quickly gets confusing. The band…
HIP POETRY READ
William McGonagall on speed? More Poems From The Boreen By Tom O’BrienPublished by tomtom-theatre, Paperback, £ Review by Pete Donohue Tom O’Brien is an Irish writer, playwright and poet who has…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
COP26 Part 1Losing Earth: The Decade we Could Have Stopped Climate Change By Nathaniel RichPublished by Picador, 2020 Paperback, £ rrp at Bookbusters Review of Tim Barton Put aside the…
Aspirations Unveiled
Ross Fraser-Smith found an unpretentious nurturing of local talent in the return of the Hastings Literary Festival. This year’s Hastings Literary Festival boasted a wide variety of events, including publishing…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
Fearless Cities Barcelona En Comú Published by New Internationalist, 2019, £ at Bookbusters Review By Tim Barton This great book popped out two years ago, so in effect is ‘new’ thanks…
ALBUM REVIEW
New Religion Starter Kit BEN CORNWELL reviews The Beautiful Revolution’s debut album, New Religion Starter Kit. Listening to The Beautiful Revolution’s album for the first time was a unique experience…
Absence Makes the Art Grow Stranger
By Nick Pelling It’s an old art teaching maxim – look closely at what is not there. At the shape of spaces. Tom Banks has been staring at St Leonards…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
The Tyranny of Merit By Michael J SandelPublished by Penguin Books, 2021, £ at Bookbusters Review by Tim Barton This timely book by Harvard professor Michael Sandel gives a complex…
REVIEW: More than Revolting Children
White Rock Theatre’s Summer Youth Project returned last month for the first time since 2019 with ‘Matilda the Musical Jr.’ Ben Cornwell watched the opening night. I know Roald Dahl’s…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
Carbon Choices By Neil Kitching Published by the author, 2020, £ at Bookbusters Review by Tim Barton In a BBC interview last month, Greta Thunberg stated ‘I think that we…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
The Starship & the Canoe By Kenneth Brower Published by Mountaineers Books, 2020, £15 at Bookbusters Review by Tim Barton This odd, but rather wonderful, book was first published in…
FILM REVIEW
First Cow Review by Jamie Sellers What springs to mind when you think of buddy movies? The Odd Couple? Butch and Sundance? Thelma and Louise? Maybe one of those modern…
FILM REVIEW: After Love
By Jamie Sellers Had cinemas been open to capacity all year, a movie like After Love – Kent-born writer-director Aleem Khan’s intriguing drama – would certainly have garnered more attention…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
The Coming Silent Seasons?Part Five: Kids Edition Phoebe the Bee, Jenny BaileyPublished by Tales From Mother Earth, book and CD with Seeds, £ Kids Fight Climate Change Martin Dorey, RRP £, Bookbuster…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
Oil Be Damned: Part fourBreaking Through: Understanding Sovereignty and Security in the Circumpolar Arctic (Editors) Wilfred Greaves & P. Whitney LackenbauerPublished by University of Toronto Press, 2021 Review by Tim…
Body Count
HUGH SULLIVAN reviews The Duke’s Theatre Company production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at Fairlight Hall. Down at the Capulet family crypt in Verona which doubles as Friar Laurence’s cell,…
Vox Salva
GARETH STEVENS reviews Juliet Russell’s breathtaking new album: Vox Salva. Like us all, I truly appreciate the depth and breadth of musical talent that we have in our town, but…
Look Through Any Window
Review by Kent Barker Is there just the hint of the peeping Tom in all of us? A nosiness that needs to know what’s going on behind drawn curtains? If…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
The Great Adaptation: Climate, Capitalism and Catastrophe By Romain FelliPublished by Verso, 2021, RRP £, £ at Bookbuster Review by Tim Barton The last few decades, from the 1987 UN…
HIP POETRY READ
Swallowing Paregoric Babies By Pete Donohue Published by Uncollected Press (ML, USA)158 pp. $15 from publisher or £ from Amazon UKAlso available from local bookshops (signed) Review by Nick Pelling…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
Oil Be Damned: Part three Eating Fossil Fuels: Oil, Food and the Coming Crisis in Agriculture By Dale Allen PfeifferPublished by New Society, 2006, £ at Bookbuster Review by Tim…
BOOKBUSTER REVIEW
Oil Be Damned: Part TwoWhite Skin, Black Fuel: on thedangers of fossil fascism By Andreas Malm and the Zetkin CollectivePublished by Verso, 2021 Review by Tim Barton This is an…