Stevie Wonder is one of the defining musical figures of the modern era: singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, campaigner and humanitarian. Born Stevland Hardaway Judkins on 13 May 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan, he was six weeks premature and developed retinopathy of prematurity, losing his sight shortly after birth. Yet blindness never Continue Reading
PINK FLOYD : DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
COMFORTABLY NUMB: WHEN ROGER WATERS’ DARKNESS MET DAVID GILMOUR’S GUITAR THE PINK FLOYD MASTERPIECE BORN FROM TWO VERY DIFFERENT MEN There are songs that belong to an album, and there are songs that eventually seem to escape from it. Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” did exactly that. Released on The Wall Continue Reading
PRISON REFORM’S WEAKEST LINK: CAN PROBATION CARRY THE WEIGHT OF EARLY RELEASE?
Alex Norris Faces Parliament as Government Tries to Solve a Prison Crisis That Has Moved Beyond the Prison Gates Justice Secretary Alex Norris faces an increasingly difficult political and practical argument over prison reform as the Government attempts to prevent England and Wales running out of usable prison places while Continue Reading
THE GRASS ARENA: WHEN CHESS GAVE JOHN HEALY A WAY OUT
MARK RYLANCE’S EXTRAORDINARY PORTRAIT OF ADDICTION, VIOLENCE AND RECOVERY The Grass Arena is not a film that observes alcoholism from a safe distance. It drags the audience down onto the pavement and leaves it there. Made for BBC television in 1991, directed by Gillies MacKinnon and adapted by Frank Deasy Continue Reading
FERRY DISASTER OFF NORTHERN CYPRUS LEAVES AT LEAST EIGHT DEAD
Search operation continues after Filo Jet overturns near Kyrenia, with 18 people still unaccounted for. A passenger ferry carrying 267 people has capsized and sunk off the northern coast of Cyprus, killing at least eight people and leaving 18 others missing in one of the region’s most serious maritime disasters Continue Reading
NEPAL INTENSIFIES DESPERATE TUNNEL RESCUE AFTER CATASTROPHIC HIMALAYAN FLOODS
Hundreds of hydropower workers remain missing as international rescue teams battle mud, unstable ground and the threat of further flooding. Nepal ita rescue at the feet of the Himalayas. Nepal has intensified one of the most difficult rescue operations in its history as specialist teams attempt to reach hundreds of Continue Reading
