Exhibitions - Ford Maddox Brown:Pre-Raphaelite Pioneer - Manchester Art Gallery

Star rating – 8/10

You can visit Manchester Art Gallery at any time and be treated to some of the best of Pre-Raphaelite art. You can also wander into the magnificent Town Hall a few minutes’ walk away and look at the Manchester Murals of Ford Madox Brown. We are a bit spoilt here, and the danger is that you can take these treasures for granted, as I myself was inevitably guilty of doing when I worked at the Town Hall many moons ago.

So this great new exhibition at the Art Gallery about the life and work of Madox Brown pulls it all together and gives a context that is not usually evident about this fascinating and original artist’s work. He was, as the name of the exhibition suggests, a great influence on, and a lifelong friend of, the later Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and Millais, although he never actually joined them.

Many of the pictures here contain the trademark attention to detail and vivid colour that the Pre-Raphaelites are known for. But there is also a great array of pencil drawings and sketches from throughout his career that show off his skill and exacting standards to great effect. There are very touching pictures of his children, including two who died in infancy, and of his two wives. Family obviously meant a great deal to him, although as with many great artists, he never really benefited significantly from the great wealth that his works would later generate.

There are some lovely landscapes of scenery from London and the south of England, where he and his family lived. ‘The Hayfield’ shows an unusual night time scene from Hendon with beautiful colours, where the fields are moon lit and the harvest preparations stopped for the night.

And one of his most famous paintings, ‘Work’, which was one of the first to explore contemporary Victorian subjects and lay bare some of the more controversial social and political questions of the day, is dissected by also showing around it the careful drawings that Madox Brown made of its component parts, including some beautiful sketches of the dogs in the final piece.

In ‘The Last of England’ he shows a young family in a desperate attempt to escape the poverty of their life in this country, as emigrants on a boat to a bright new future, He captures their desperation very well. And in ‘Stages of Cruelty’ he depicts a woman carelessly disregarding her lover’s attentions, whilst her daughter is in the process of beating a defenceless dog. The two tone colour he achieves on the woman’s full velvet skirt is spectacular.

Although an agnostic, Madox Brown painted many beautiful biblical scenes, including one of Christ washing the feet of Peter. This can be seen as a sort of companion piece to ‘Work’, as Madox Brown makes his views known about the dignity of what was often viewed as menial labour. It’s amusing to note that he was forced to cover up the torso of the kneeling Lord with a tasteful green garment, as the sight of his bare chest was a step too far for Victorian sensibilities.

Madox Brown was an original and great artist, and also a principled man who used his talents to fight what he viewed as the injustices of his day, and his contribution to the city of Manchester is deservedly rewarded by this fascinating exhibition. Even if you don’t make it to this excellent collection, just have a peek at the Manchester Murals next time you are passing our Town Hall, and be glad that we live in a city with such a proud and rich cultural heritage.

Gigs - John Bramwell - Nantwich Words and Music Festival

Star rating – 9/10

John Bramwell cut a dashing figure at the Nantwich Words & Music Festival this afternoon (yes I do mean afternoon!) sporting a beard and an unusual touch of colour in the shape of a red shirt. He performed a beautiful solo acoustic set which, as always, showed off his talents as a wordsmith to great effect.

The set included stripped down versions of some I Am Kloot gems such as From Your Favourite Sky, I Believe, Proof, The Brink, 86 TVs, Storm Warning, Gods and Monsters, This House is Haunted , and The Moon is a Blind Eye. John also gave us a sneak preview of a couple of tracks from the new album that IAK are currently recording, one of which is provisionally titles ‘Shoeless’. And on first listening it’s safe to say that when the new release comes it will not disappoint.

It was nice to see him in such great humour, despite the hour, as he treated the small but perfectly formed crowd to jokes about biscuits (you had to be there), his missing front teeth, and an anecdote involving John Cooper Clarke, his mum June, and a cheap microphone.

Until IAK tour with their new material, these great intimate offerings from one of the finest singer songwriters around will do perfectly well as a reminder of how brilliant songs about drinking, disaster, death and romance really can be. Here’s to more of them.

Theatre - All the Way Home - Library Theatre, Lowry

Star rating – 6/10

George Bernard Shaw once said that the working classes were only allowed on the stage as figures of fun. So he would probably not have been a fan of the Library Theatre’s production of Ayub Khan-Din’s new play set in Salford, ‘All the Way Home’. It is in parts very funny, and in parts very sad, but unlike the great kitchen sink dramas that emerged from the North and Midlands via the likes of John Osborne and Shelagh Delaney in the 1950s and 1960s, it lacks clarity and precision of analysis that leaves its audience floundering in an uncomfortable cocktail of themes.

It is set in a Salford neighbourhood that is being pulled down around a family, who find themselves drawn back to their old childhood home, where their elder brother Frankie is upstairs, having come home from hospital to die in familiar surroundings. The tensions between the grown up siblings are laid bare, and other themes of race and the politics of urban regeneration are hinted at but never really explored.

The acting is first class, especially Julie Riley as reformed crack addict Sonia who can’t help but say exactly what she thinks to all around her, and let’s just say that she is not really a glass half full type of girl. Sean Gallagher plays Brian, the brother who has escaped to London to pursue a blossoming career in photography; and Kate Anthony is Carol, who has a lot to answer for, having escaped to the leafy south Manchester suburbs and deserted her roots for the delights of Didsbury village. Her family almost spit out the name of her new home as they castigate her for this ultimate betrayal.

The irony of this plot line is that a large part of the audience will themselves be from the same leafy suburbs, laughing at the people on stage who are playing at being Salford oiks. It all felt a bit uncomfortable and aimless. In the end it felt like Shameless for the middle classes, which was a wasted opportunity when it could and should have offered so much more.

Books - Temporary Perfections by Gianrico Carofiglio

Star rating – 7/10

If you are like me a lover of crime fiction, and you haven’t discovered the Bitter Lemon Press, then you have a treat in store. They publish quality crime fiction and thrillers, often set in far away exotic locations. My own favourite discovery from them so far is Gianrico Carofiglio, who has just published his fourth novel featuring Italian lawyer Guido Guerrieri, ‘Temporary Perfections’.

Carofiglio’s background is particularly interesting, for before he discovered his talent for penning books, he was a prosecutor in the Italian city of Bari in Puglia, who specialised in prosecuting members of the mafia. And he uses his personal experiences to add depth and colour to Guerrieri’s own legal career. He does have some of the, by now, obligatory tick list features of a crime fiction hero. These inevitably include failed personal relationships; the inability to achieve a healthy work/life balance; and a penchant for fine food and alcohol, sometimes to excess.

But despite this adherence to the formula, Carofiglio achieves a gritty pace to his books, which are always a cracking read. If anything this fourth one is slightly less strong than the previous three, as there does not seem to be that much sleuthing or legal work involved. But Guerrieri makes full use of past clients he has, usually successfully it has be said, defended, such as ex prostitutes, drug dealers and Mafioso, to get to the bottom of the disappearance of the daughter of a rich Bari family. If only he could resist the temptations of a young pretty girl to flatter his mid life crisis...

Carofiglio also achieves a wonderful sense of Bari, the backstreets and underbelly of which are centre stage in his stories, with the odd venture to Rome and other Italian cities thrown in for good measure. If you take my advice, and you know you want to, you will head straight for the first instalment of the legal adventures of Guido Guerrieri, ‘Involuntary Witness’ and work your way through the following three books too, as the nights draw in, and there is nothing better than a good crime book to keep you amused.