Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
STUCK in lockdown and slowly going mad? Can I recommend you read Dan Rhodes’ When the Professor Got Stuck in the Snow, which is the story of Professor Richard Dawkins also stuck in a lockdown, due to a snowstorm, and also apparently going bonkers.
I first came across Dan Rhodes through his short stories.
When I say short, they were really short. His earlier book, Anthropology, is of 101 stories, each 101 words long, so he knows all about economy and brevity. He can be funny and sharp and can get emotional depth out of fewer words.
A Vatican photo-op, a hard-right donor and a rhetoric of mass deportations reveal how appeals to ‘Christian values’ are being reshaped by Reform and Tory MPs, says SOLOMON HUGHES
It is rather strange that Labour continues to give prestigious roles to inappropriate, controversy-mired businessmen who are also major Tory donors. What could Labour possibly be hoping to get out of it, asks SOLOMON HUGHES
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes an exuberant blend of emotion and analysis that captures the politics and contrarian nature of the French composer
JOHN HAWKINS welcomes the passion, grief, precision and elegance of an eloquent witness of genocide


