The Damned. Thank you; I publish...

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If you were too young, or too old, to really "get" Punk - or even if you were in the thick of it, the band that was the missing link between Music Hall and armageddon - as remembered in this documentary - is for my money the one to fill in the gaps. Summing up so much about the punk attitude, really dangerous onstage and sparking riots on tour - with a bass-player called Captain Sensible.

The Insect Farm

Stuart Prebble
Alma Books
ISBN 978-1-84688-361-3

Like any good novel, The Insect Farm may have you looking back at your own world in a new light, and questioning your fix on reality. Jonathan is his brother Roger’s carer. Roger is obsessed with the elaborate universe he constructed in a shed in their parents’ garden, populated by millions of tiny insects. His obsession is equalled by Jonathan’s obsession with his beautiful, talented and absent girlfriend Harriet.

As Roger lives in an impenetrable world of his own, after the mysterious death of their parents Jonathan was forced to give up his studies to take care of him. This obligation forces Jonathan to live apart from Harriet – boosting his already jealous nature. Halfway through the 'deftly plotted' tale their obsessive little world is shattered by a new trauma, and we begin to wonder if it is Roger, not Jonathan, who is the ‘carer’ in their relationship.

By now we readers have become so used to being inside Jonathan’s mind that we can’t put the book down until we are sure of his survival. But even the existence of a threat to that survival is increasingly questioned. If Jonathan knows more than he is admitting, he never quite lets us know. Despite the shock near-ending and a couple of unexpected twists, the plot remains in full flight right up to the final page.