Front Row

Patrick Radden Keefe, who has been shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize of Prizes award, discusses his book Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty. It tells the shocking story of the Sackler family and the part their company, Purdue Pharma, played in America's opioid crisis.“The word ‘divine’,” Iestyn Davies says, ”has changed its meaning to indicate nowadays beauty as well as Divinity.” The songs countertenor Iestyn Davies has selected for his new album, Divine Music: An English Songbook, reflect this change. There are settings by Purcell, Britten and Butterworth and words by Shakespeare, de la Mare and Housman. That prolific artist Anonymous makes a significant contribution, too. Iestyn Davies talks to Tom Sutcliffe about his choices and, accompanied by pianist Joseph Middleton, performs one of them, appropriately titled, ‘A Hymn on Divine Music’.Theatre is not only becoming increasingly focused on telling stories about our climate crisis, but also thinking more about how sustainabl