The sirens sound in the street. The lockdown order comes. The images on the television are of chaos and illness, total societal collapse. The apocalypse is here, and where are the rich? Already holed up in their survival compounds, ready to ride out the end of the world before emerging to take control of what’s
Margaret Atwood has often resisted auto-biographical interpretations of her work, but it is impossible to read her short story collection Old Babes in the Wood without acknowledging the death in 2019 of her long-term partner Graeme Gibson. Death permeates every page of the book. Reaching for a comforting layer of fiction, Atwood revives two characters
It’s the youth wot won it (almost). The day after the election turned into a day of self-congratulation for young voters, as initial reports indicated 72 per cent turnout among 18-24 year olds. As post-election data comes in, it is obvious that the so-called ‘youthquake’ was exaggerated. Nevertheless, there was undeniably an upward trend in engagement.
