| Going local: how to make a big difference in small ways |
[13 Jan 2020|06:30am] |
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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/13/going-local-how-to-make-a-big-difference-in-small-ways For readers feeling anxious about the climate crisis, a fresh crop of nature writing is energising grassroots activism and inspiring local conservation Confronted by climate breakdown, the extinction crisis and rising inequalities, it is easy to feel anxious and hopeless. I feel those things, but in recent months I’ve also been heartened by a surge of grassroots action, of diverse people responding in myriad ways to multiplying crises. To call it an ecosystem of resistance would be overly dramatic, but it is a flowering of good deeds and positive care for local neighbourhoods. In my blue corner of conservative Norfolk, traditionally slow to adopt national trends, I’ve encountered all kinds of inspiring work. The Norwich Soup Movement is one of four women-led volunteer groups providing hot suppers for the homeless every day of the week. Eves Hill Veg Co is a community market garden (again women-led), which trains people in horticulture and grows healthy fruit and veg for local people. Dandelion Education is an outdoor nursery and forest school with an enlightened focus on improving youth mental health, run by two brilliant former teachers. The Felbeck Trust is one of scores of new micro-local conservation groups seeking to restore wildlife. Continue reading...
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| Agency by William Gibson review – back to a frightful future |
[13 Jan 2020|07:00am] |
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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/13/agency-william-gibson-review The ‘cyberspace’ novelist’s century-hopping sequel to The Peripheral is vague and exhaustingIf you’re a novelist, a reputation for prophecy can be a mixed blessing – what do you do when reality catches up? For William Gibson, credited with coining the term “cyberspace” in a 1982 story, the answer, it seemed, was to leave behind science fiction for rompy spy capers such as 2010’s Zero History, in which a rock star’s hunt for rare denim leads to the heart of the military-industrial complex. Yet in 2014, Gibson went back to his roots with The Peripheral, a whizzy post-apocalyptic saga set in a multiverse of virtual time travel. It felt like a return to form – or at least it did prior to this disenchanting sequel, which puts The Peripheral’s narrative toybox in the service of a seductive but ultimately enervating parallel reality in which Hillary Clinton beat Trump and Britain voted Remain. Continue reading...
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| You’re Not Listening review – why we must listen to our opponents |
[13 Jan 2020|09:00am] |
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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/13/youre-not-listening-kate-murphy-review Accomplished interviewer Kate Murphy makes an inspiring plea for everyone to pay attention to those who disagree with usThe premise of this book couldn’t be more timely, although the idea is also frighteningly easy to dismiss. There is a temptation to retreat into comfortable harrumphing: “I think you’ll find that I’m not the one who is not listening. Trump/Johnson/Corbyn/Thunberg [insert name of your bete noire here] is the one who is not listening. They need this book, not me.” It’s clear to most right-thinking people, however, regardless of their sympathies, that we live in an age where many struggle to listen. And yet, more than ever, we expect to be heard. There’s a mismatch there. And something’s got to give. Murphy approaches this topic as an old-school journalist with a prolific interviewing record for the New York Times. She prides herself on being such a good listener that she is able to help her subjects reach insights they might not otherwise have uncovered. The ability to listen actively and attentively is something that has become a rare commodity, she argues. “When I interview people – whether it’s a person on the street, CEO or celebrity – I often get the sense that they are unaccustomed to having someone listen to them.” Continue reading...
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| British-Trinidadian dub poet Roger Robinson wins TS Eliot prize |
[13 Jan 2020|07:30pm] |
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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/13/roger-robinson-dub-poet-ts-eliot-prize Judges praise A Portable Paradise for finding evidence of ‘sweet, sweet life’ in the bitterness of everyday experience Roger Robinson, the British-Trinidadian dub poet, has won the prestigious TS Eliot prize on his first nomination for his collection A Portable Paradise. The only poetry award judged solely by established poets, the £25,000 TS Eliot prize has been described by the former poet laureate, Sir Andrew Motion, as “the prize most poets want to win”. Continue reading...
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