Front Row

At the piano, composer Alan Menken discusses his music which led the rebirth of Disney animation with hits such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, which he’s reworked for the new live-action version currently top of the box office. Georgia's state governor has signed legislation banning abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected (except in reported cases of rape or incest). In response, several major production companies including Netflix and Disney have said they are considering a boycott of the state. Last year 455 film and television productions were made in Georgia, where film companies enjoy a 30% tax rebate and 92,000 people work in the industry so the impact could be significant. American film writer, Michael Carlson, considers the story.In Amitav Ghosh’s new novel Gun Island, the protagonist Deen Datta finds himself on a journey from the muddy Sunderbans of Bangladesh – the world’s largest mangrove forest – to Los Angeles and Venice, to solve a linguistic mystery. Ghosh discuss