Spiral Notebook: To speak or not to speak

Little wonder Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman is so exercised by statements put out in his name which seemingly gave cover to radical preacher Anjem Choudary's visit to Brick Lane a week ago.

Choudary - the Katie Hopkins of hate preachers - threatened hellfire and whippings to Muslims selling alcohol along the traditional stretch of curry houses and bars.

Books: David And Goliath, Difficult Men, Two Girls, One On Each Knee

David And Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits And The Art Of Battling Giants
Malcolm Gladwell (Allen Lane)
★★★★✩

David and Goliath. Great story. That David. Beat the odds. didn't he. with his sling and stuff against the big bruiser Goliath. Every loser wins, as TV's Nick Berry once said.

That's not how it was.

Doink! You what?

Spiral Notebook: A failure of tolerance

Tolerance has been taken hostage. Last week, three men were jailed for their actions as part of the east London "Muslim Patrol", a gang of extremists who tried to enforce Sharia law by bullying passers-by, first with megaphones and then with fists.

Stage review: Drawing The Line, Hampstead Theatre

STAGE
Drawing The Line
Hampstead Theatre
★★★★✩

IN A NUTSHELL
Howard Brenton's compelling take on the partition of India is sweeping epic given pin-sharp focus with precision and wit.

Spiral Notebook: Rahman's insult to Tower Hamlets

Tower Hamlets Council has endorsed an investigation by Tower Hamlets Homes and the police into the curious case of the "Rahman canvassers".

This follows reports that bogus representatives from the social housing company were using their access to residents in Wapping to flog Mayor Lutfur Rahman's re-election bid.

Stage review: Strangers On A Train, Gielgud Theatre

STAGE
Strangers On A Train
Gielgud Theatre
★★★✩✩

IN A NUTSHELL
A stylish and slick take on Hitchcock's classic has plenty of tension, but is occasionally stymied by its own aesthetic ambition

Turner And The Sea, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

JMW Turner was the pre-eminent landscape painter in Western art, according to leading Victorian art critic John Ruskin. But the weight and obsession of the artist's canon suggests he was, above all, and with an relentless obsession, a seascape painter.

Film review: The Family (15)

FILM
The Family
(15) 111mins
★★✩✩✩

IN A NUTSHELL
Director Luc Besson creates some uncomfortable shift in tone that undermines the work of his accomplished cast.

Spiral Notebook: The wrong Brand of revolution

Russell Brand has suggested that young people should not vote, their collective act of indifference sparking crisis, then revolution.

He delivered his polemic on Newsnight in his usual baroque lexicon, like a child keeping pace with a runaway autocue.

Film review: Gravity (12A)

FILM
Gravity
(12A) 91mins
★★★★★

IN A NUTSHELL
Director Alfonso Cuaron takes CGI to a new level with his spellbinding 3D space adventure.