Charlotte Appleyard
The Artist is Present
Walk through Walls: A Memoir
By Marina Abramović with James Kaplan
Fig Tree 370pp £20 order from our bookshop
Performance art isn’t typically something we consider very funny, at least not intentionally. More often it evokes images of wan-faced waifs in unitards, attempting to describe the agonies of the human experience through mime. Marina Abramović uses performance art to tackle the big themes of life and death, forcing us to question the nature of art and what it is to be alive. So you’d be forgiven for being surprised that she’s also extremely funny.
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'Only in Britain, perhaps, could spy chiefs – conventionally viewed as masters of subterfuge – be so highly regarded as ethical guides.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-spy-who-taught-me
In this month's Bookends, @AdamCSDouglas looks at the curious life of Henry Labouchere: a friend of Bram Stoker, 'loose cannon', and architect of the law that outlawed homosexual activity in Britain.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-gross-indecency
'We have all twenty-nine of her Barsetshire novels, and whenever a certain longing reaches critical mass we read all twenty-nine again, straight through.'
Patricia T O'Conner on her love for Angela Thirkell. (£)
https://literaryreview.co.uk/good-gad