Watch…..Las Acacias (2011 Argentina) A lorry driver, a road journey from Paraguay to Buenos Aires and a woman with a child who joins him on the trip. There is little script and the baby plays a big role in bringing together two people who are struggling to find happiness. Like so many good films, it’s not about the script, but the unspoken relationship between the two main characters. Also the wonderful landscape as the trip takes us through South America.

Read……Burning Bright(2007) by Tracy Chevalier. Set in London in 1791, an exciting if dangerous time, it’s the story of a family who move from rural Dorset to the urban madness of London. The son,Jem, meets a young woman, Maggie, and together they get to know the political radical, poet and artist, William Blake. The children become swept up in the lives of the Blakes and the political turmoil going on in the city. Beautifully written and illustrated, it shows how Blake had much to say that we can relate to today, including his stance against the corruption of government and the importance of opposing tyranny.

Visit….Albert Adams (1929-2006) exhibition at Working Class Movement Library and University of Salford. The latter was given a collection of Albert’s paintings and prints. Albert was born in Johannesburg in 1929 but due to apartheid he was forced to leave the country in 1953 to pursue his art. Influenced by Goya and Durer many of his paintings are about suffering and war. Although he lived most of his life outside South Africa he never lost his identity. “I have never regarded myself as an exile, although South Afican born and raised. I was a secondclass citizen who never felt South African.” One of his paintings,South Africa 1959, was likened to Picasso’s Guernica. A political artist to the end, even in his later years he was depicting the suffering of prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Sadly there is little publicity about the exhiibiton and, although its easy to access at the WCML the Salford University part is at the Clifford Whitworth Library, so you have to sign in and make your way through a busy study centre. But it is well worth the effort!

Listen to…for all the Au Pairs fans…just got this. ..Sense and Sensuality...their  second and final album..issued in 1982, remixed in 2002.   Enjoy!