Joe Penhall's 'gripping' play about an MP pulled into danger 

"Talk about topical," said Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times. The Old Vic must have known that Joe Penhall's "riveting new political drama" would be timely when they programmed it; but what were the odds of it opening three weeks before the election… "well, perhaps best not to talk in betting terms right now". 

Marking the return to the stage of James Corden as the titular constituent, this "gripping, comic and, ultimately, moving drama" also boasts an assured performance from Anna Maxwell Martin as a hard-working backbench MP – and landing on stage in the midst of a "mudslinging" scandal, it serves as an important reminder that our politicians are human beings who "conduct their work in an increasingly hostile environment". 

The play does not have the "brash polemics" of David Hare, nor the sprawling ambition of James Graham, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. Rather, this neat three-hander becomes "universal by being so specific", firmly rooted in the theme of "personal safety versus community responsibility".

As Alec, an ex-soldier who served in Afghanistan and who is now about to lose custody of his children, Corden confirms his status as a "great stage actor", said Tim Bano in The Independent. At first, he's "zippy" and fast-talking; later, he moves to the other end of the "emotional spectrum". 
Meanwhile, Maxwell Martin delivers a nuanced turn as his MP (and old classmate) who, in trying to help him, gets pulled into a dangerous situation.

The scenes play out in "zinging back-and-forths", but the piece feels schematic and underwritten. It's as if we're seeing "two sides of an argument rather than two fully rounded characters – and not just one argument either, but many and scattershot", covering more than enough issues to fill an edition of "Question Time".

I struggled to believe in the third character, said Clive Davis in The Times – a dim-witted police detective; I felt Corden failed to convey the depth of Alec's anguish, and that Matthew Warchus's staging was a bit lacklustre. All told, the evening suffers from "a distinct lack of fireworks".

by Anita Desai

Anita Desai's new book – her first in 13 years – is an "evocative" novella set in Mexico, about a young woman grappling with her mother's past, said Lucy Scholes in the Financial Times. Bonita, an Indian visiting Mexico to improve her Spanish, is "sitting on a shaded bench in a park in San Miguel" when a "flamboyantly dressed older woman" approaches her and asks if she's the "little girl" of her "adored" friend Rosarita. Bonita suggests she's mistaken: her mother was called Sarita, not Rosarita – and besides, she never came to Mexico. But the "older woman brushes aside these protests", and her certainty sows doubt in Bonita's mind. She asks herself, who was her mother really?

Desai is best known for her "studiously realist" novels of Indian family life, such as "Clear Light of Day" and "Fasting, Feasting", said George Cochrane in The Telegraph. Rosarita is a "more ludic tale, as taut and weird and entrancing as a story by Jorge Luis Borges". But it's strangely captivating: even aged 87, Desai remains a wonderful writer. If this is her swansong, it is "a magnificent way to go out". 

One of the last survivors of America's 'Six Triple Eight'  

Romay Davis, who has died aged 104, was the oldest surviving member of the "Six Triple Eight" – the only US army battalion composed of Black women to serve overseas during the Second World War. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion had been formed to tackle a fall in morale ascribed to the fact that US soldiers serving in Europe had not had any mail from home for two years, said The Washington Post. The army had not had the resources to distribute it, and 17 million pieces of post had been allowed to pile up in dank warehouses in England. Letters containing vital family news were going unread, and "lovingly assembled care packages" were being eaten by rats. The task of the 855 women of the 6888th was to clear this backlog within six months. "No mail, low morale" was their motto, and working in shifts around the clock, they fulfilled their mission in three months, an achievement deemed crucial to the war effort. 

Romay Davis was born in Virginia in 1919, the only girl in a family of six. Her childhood, she recalled, was spent in "wild open spaces", surrounded by animals. But the South was segregated, and with no Black high school in the region, she had to leave home in her teens. She completed her education in Washington and was working for the US Mint when war broke out. Her brothers enlisted, and having always wanted to do what they did, she joined the Women’s Army Corps in 1943, as a mechanic. The 6888th was formed in 1944 to allow African American women a more prominent role in the army, thanks to the efforts of civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt. Almost all its recruits were Black; a few were Hispanic. They arrived in bomb-damaged Birmingham in early 1945, after an Atlantic crossing in which they’d braved huge waves and German U-boats, and set to work.

Each soldier had a file card noting his location, but troops had been moving quickly, and many shared names: there were 7,000 Robert Smiths. Knowing that the men's spirits relied on news from home, the women sought to identify every addressee. Once they had cleared this backlog, they moved to Rouen, just after VE Day, to do a similar task there. As in Birmingham, the women were welcomed by local families, who invited them into their homes for meals; and on trips to Paris, they enjoyed freedoms few had experienced at home. "They were glad to have us," Davis recalled. After the War, she worked as a clothes designer. In her 60s, she studied for a master's. In her 70s, she took up karate, becoming a black belt; at the age of 79, she got a job in a grocery store in Alabama, where she was still working aged 101. In 2022, she went to Washington to receive the Congressional Gold Medal.