Cinematograph

When we talk about ‘a poetess’ or ‘female poetry’, it usually sounds like ‘women behind the wheel’, in a patronizing and mocking way, meaning that it’s impossible to seriously discuss women’s literary art in our patriarchal civilization. A while ago, I found out that the first poet whose name came down to us was a woman. She lived back in the 23 rd century BC, in the Sumerian city-state Ur. Her name was Enheduanna. She was the high priestess of the goddess Inanna and the god Nanna, composed hymns and prayers and sang them. They have been preserved and translated into modern languages. These texts aren’t simply outstanding poetry. They are quintessential to what Buddha, and then Jesus Christ, said to the people two thousand years later.

This book examines why thousands of cinemas opened in Britain in the space of a few years before the start of the First World War. It explains how they were the product of an investment boom which observers characterised