Domestic Gothic stories where the sinister behind the everyday is centre stage. Ailsa Cox | Precipitation | Confingo: £6:00 plus postage and packaging. Reviewed by Paul Knowles. Cox’s Precipitation is a masterclass in capturing the unsettling eeriness that sits behind the mundanity of the domestic. All three stories in Cox’s collection explore the hidden secrets […]
David Wheldon, The Viaduct, Reviewed by Dylan Stewart
It is an imagination, and a world, that I quite liked inhabiting. In some ways it seemed notably British, made up of well-meaning but somewhat sinister parochial towns, cities with draconian laws, a legion of nearly identical coppers to enforce them, and superstitious drifters who seem sick of the whole set-up but have no power […]
Blue Now, Aviva Studios, reviewed by Clare Patterson
A moving live staging of Derek Jarman’s intimate final work Blue Now | Aviva Studios | 8th December 2024Reviewed by Clare Patterson Over three decades after the original release of Derek Jarman’s Blue (1993), director Neil Bartlett brings a live stage performance of Jarman’s visionary final film to Aviva Studios. Sitting down in the theatre, […]
Stella Wong, Stem, reviewed by Ian Pople
An energetic and resonant collection of lyric poems and dramatic monologues Stella Wong | Stem | Princeton University Press: £14.99Reviewed by Ian Pople In her second collection, Stem, Wong offers a series of poems entitled, ‘Dramatic Monologue…’, followed by the names of several forgotten female composers. These forgotten female composers have tended to specialise in […]
Twelfth Night, Royal Shakespeare Theatre (Stratford-upon-Avon), Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell
A darkly delicious Christmas retelling of Shakespeare’s raucous gender-swapping comedy. Twelfth Night | Royal Shakespeare Theatre (Stratford-upon-Avon) | 7th of December Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell Undoubtedly, this is one of the most confident, raucous, and dazzling productions of Shakespeare that we have watched over the last few years. The costumes, […]
Rachel Kushner, Creation Lake, reviewed by Georgina Parfitt
An unreliable narrator’s cry for help Rachel Kushner| Creation Lake | Jonathan Cape: £18.99 Reviewed by Georgina Parfitt My friend and I happened to be reading Creation Lake at the same time without knowing it. I mentioned it one day, withholding my thoughts, and my friend got excited: Oh, you too?, We hesitated. There are […]
John Ironmonger, The Wager and the Bear, reviewed by Paul Knowles and Samantha Cassells
A Cornish Ecothriller: two adversaries thrown together by a deadly climate wager John Ironmonger | The Wager and the Bear | Fly on the Wall Press: £11:99 Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Samantha Cassells John Ironmonger’s The Wager and the Bear is a hugely ambitious novel: mixing philosophy, politics and climate change together in an […]
David Hockney – Bigger and Closer (not smaller and further away) | Factory International @ Aviva Studios | Reviewed by Liam Starkey
People may think Hockney is a little obvious or populist, but I realise Hockney is a quality artist. David Hockney – Bigger and Closer (not smaller and further away) | Factory International @ Aviva Studios 10 December 2024 – 25 January 2025 | Reviewed by Liam Starkey Getting into the exhibition is a little disorientating. […]
Design for Planet Festival 2024, Manchester School of Art, reviewed by Rowanna Lacey Ewings
An event that truly allowed the free flow of radical thought and provided a place for powerful discussions around making sustainable change. Design for Planet Festival 2024 | Manchester School of Art (Manchester Metropolitan University) | Reviewed by Rowanna Lacey Ewings The sustainability spotlight was shining down on Manchester for the Design for Planet Festival […]
Samantha Harvey, Orbital, reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell
A dizzying, stark, haunting reflection on humanity’s hubris from outer space. Samantha Harvey| Orbital| Jonthan Cape: £9.99Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Edith Powell Orbital by English writer Samantha Harvey is a lyrical reflection on what makes us human: our hopes, beliefs and fragilities. The narrative follows six astronauts from across the globe (Russia, Japan, Ireland, […]
Yael van der Wouden, The Safekeep, Reviewed by Alexandria Mowrey
Lost and found are two sides of the same coin in this stirring tale of desire Yael van der Wouden | The Safekeep | Viking: £16:99 Reviewed by Alexandria Mowrey ‘They are not for touching. They are for keeping.’ These are the first words spoken by Isabel in Yael van der Wouden’s Booker-shortlisted (and debut) […]
Percival Everett, James, reviewed by Joseph Hunter
Strange, barbed, inverted retelling of an American classic by a contemporary American giant Percival Everett | James | Pan Macmillan: £9.99Reviewed by Joseph Hunter I don’t know what to make of this novel. It’s hard to assess it. It’s hard for two reasons. 1) Percival Everett is a superb, distinguished, and significant writer. 2) This […]
3 poems
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester Coffee Once a currency of the colonial kings of the seas, Captain.This simple plant. It will grow and die and synthesiseSo why, sir, is it stained? Men enslaved; families separated, Killed.Yet the brew drips, drips, […]
On the Falseness of Wolves
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester wolves aren’t real She said it with the smooth-shouldered arrogance of youthful certainty. At first, I wasn’t sure I heard her right. I asked her what she said and she calmly […]
Eingang freihalten, bitte
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester Perhaps motherhood is a solitarywalk down the road of an interrupted dream You point out birds, flowers, how the road arrivesat Spring. Behind you, two balloons dance their strings in your hands. You are heldback on the path, wait at corners, guard against the muffled shadows of […]
When We Were Raucous
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester It’s raining. I’m in the back of the car, Beth is in the front with Dad. When there were four of us, Beth used to sit next to me and we’d watch raindrops slither down the windows, try to guess which one would get to the bottom […]
Belief
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester “But you have to believe.” We are standing in her kitchenIn front of the stove. That urgency in my grandmother’s voice soft, yet desperate? […]
2 poems
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester This Sunday Morning I watch you from the kitchen window, digging in, reaching for the good earth, summer-baked in suspended animation, knee-deep in love. The kids are asking for Daddy, the dog needs to pee, and the coffee has dribbled its last drops into the pot – […]
An Adultery
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester “Sex with my wife hasn’t been the same,” my lover says, “since her breast cancer.” Where bedsheets retract, the shoreline of his body emerges. Lumps of burnt pink, freckled all over. Behind him, glass slats combine to windows, and then the Mediterranean, its green light stretching all […]
Daisy’s Place
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester A scramble of hairpins, then a wedge of smooth sea. Down the coast, the Costa del something. High-rise hotels, Dan said, and street fights. But out here, he said, it was a different world. No bars, not on this trip, eating in and he’d cook, and anyway, […]
2 poems
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester Rialto Blues In May I take the train from Genoa to Venezia Santa Lucia, but I am late, and see you before you see me, standing on the bridge, face hard as Istrian stone. What irony that we should reunite in Venice with its web of artifice—wrecked […]
3 poems
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester I Heard Her Drumming in the Spring Haw frost comesand light snow duststhe solid ground. I take paper bagsof peanuts,sunflower seeds — black, unhusked— and do the jobyou used to do. I fill the feedershung on a stumpyash tree — a pollard we cut years ago.Binoculars, yours,sit […]
The Scent of Magnolia
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester Something was wrong as soon as we drove into our street. We heard the shriek of a siren as we passed through town. Now there was a police car outside our house, an ambulance with its blue light turning. Two paramedics loading a stretcher into the back. […]
The Headman
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester July can be unforgivingly cold. Walking outside, the chillness feels like multiple blades cutting the skin. He’s sitting in his bedroom hut, thinking of Mucha. In his mind he’s walking towards her. His heart is pounding. “Ndeipi” he says. “Where were you yesterday?” Mucha says. “I got […]
The Brain that went for a Stroll
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester I’m at my desk staring at a stack of forms waiting to be checked and captured on the system. It’s a busy time of year. There are performance reviews coming up. I’m right in the middle of a weekly stats call when it happens. I start retching. […]
To the Man Sleeping in the Airport
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester Your arm is reaching into the carpeted walkway,where hundreds travel the gentle slopetoward the cold tile of the ground-floor lobby.Your pink stomach winks through the risein your shirt, keeps watch as the crowd followsin rippling curves to miss your hand, palm-up,your fingers slightly curled as if tied […]
Pridesongs
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester Oblique Strategy #1: Is it finished? It’s morning, sometime in late 2021, and I’m standing near the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art’s river window, waiting to hear something special. Today’s a bright day – the kind where light seemingly leaks from the air itself, and the river […]
Death Robed in A Gown, So Beautiful, So Majestic
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester For my Grandfather In the old elm that crowded our backyard fence a lone magpie cawked— a woman was wading her feet through a water that had found its way into her stead, & she cursed heavily— […]
Editorial
Image: © Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester After a longer than expected break, we are very happy to announce the passing of the torch to a new editorial team which is excited to bring you this new issue of The Manchester Review. In issue twenty-six, the new editorial team has endeavoured to remain faithful […]
Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard Devotional, Reviewed by Stuti Dhar Chowdhury
A narrative of life, death and the intrigue encompassing both. Charlotte Wood | Stone Yard Devotional | Sceptre: £16.99 Reviewed by: Stuti Dhar Chowdhury A novel which pulls you right in, and yet keeps you at a distance; Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional is a true delight to read, which explains its nomination for the […]
A Midsummer Night’s Dream | The Lowry, Salford | Reviewed by Paul Knowles
Opera North’s spellbinding production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream captures the ethereal beauty of Britten’s music whilst putting the fun back into Shakespeare. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Benjamin Britten) | The Lowry, Salfrod | 13th of November 2024Reviewed by Paul Knowles The moment the ethereal humming of the synth starts to reverberate around the […]
The Magic Flute | The Lowry, Salford | Reviewed by Joseph Hunter
Opera North’s production of Mozart’s opera sings and soars The Magic Flute | The Lowry, Salford | 16th November 2024Reviewed by Joseph Hunter Audiences can get oversized ideas about their own importance. Yes, we are the ‘reason’ for what we are seeing. Without us, there is no show. The performers respond to our energy – we […]
Duets: Stories | Scratch Books | reviewed by Paul Knowles
A new anthology produces bold, stunning, and innovative short fiction Duets: Stories | Scratch Books: £11.99Reviewed by Paul Knowles Tom Conaghan (the publisher of Scratch Books) has commissioned and released another daring and innovative anthology of short fiction: Duets. Duets follows in the wake of Scratch Book’s Reverse Engineering series. The Reverse Engineering series focused […]
Anne Michaels, Held, reviewed by Sam Lamplugh
An immaculate but disquieting narrative across time Anne Michaels | Held | Bloomsbury: £9.99Reviewed by Sam Lamplugh Novels – good ones at least – utterly submerge the reader in their concerns, their perspectives and their characters for the entire length of their span. This is because, as John Berger noted, “the story’s voice makes everything its own.” Held, […]
Othello | Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon | Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Sam Cassells
A powerhouse production that reframes the action of Othello away from male jealousy and towards the horrific realities of the violence enacted on the female leads Othello | Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon | 24th October 2024Reviewed by Paul Knowles and Sam Cassells In its opening minutes, the new RSC production of Othello offers a traditional […]