Artichoke Tales

Artichoke Tales by Megan Kelso is a graphic novel, charting the stories of three generations of artichoke people, finding themselves and each other against a backdrop of civil war. The individual tales are intensely personal and yet also universal, with the history of conflict explored from two different sides, resulting in arguments over what 'really' happened.

With the stories jumping around in time and the characters all looking quite similar, it's sometimes difficult to identify when and where individual scenes take place and track the characters through their arcs.

But the book has a lot to say about generational expectations, dysfunctional families, and shared history. Moments of depth and profundity, moments of sweetness and sadness. It doesn't necessarily hold together as a cohesive whole very well, but I actually think that's partially the point.

Lovers Rock

Lovers Rock is the second in the Small Axe anthology film series by Steve McQueen and takes place almost in real time over the course of one Saturday Night party in West London in 1980. The film largely follows Martha, who climbs out of her bedroom window to attend the party with her friend, Patty, but soon gets caught up in the atmosphere and the advances of Franklyn. It's an elegiac piece that's much more about capturing a specific moment in time than it is telling a linear or cohesive story. But it very successfully portrays the feeling of the event, with its layers of romance, occasional violence and pounding music. There are undertones that speak to the larger canvas of how certain communities fitted into London at the time, but it's mostly a celebration of youthful expression and the excitement and potential of new connections.