A class apart

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.” Antonio Gramsci’s words, written in prison near Bari almost 100 years ago, ring out to us now. The politi

Lizzie Wade Apocalypse How catastrophe transformed our world and can forge new futures 320pp. William Collins. £20. Luke Kemp Goliath’s Curse The history and future of societal collapse 592pp. Viking.

Best books… Roy Foster The emeritus professor of ...

Your indispensable guide to the capital

From George Stubbs’s golden vision of the labourer’s place in society to Ford Madox Brown’s heroically monumental celebration of manual labour, artists gave individual interpretations of work, as Michael Hall reveals

Love Big Issue and Lou, I think, who sold me the mag at St Paul’s station is a nice guy. Here’s a picture (above) that I took last week from my narrow boat on the River Lea where I have recently moved