Mark Brown

London

North of England Correspondent at The Guardian

North of England correspondent, The Guardian. Based in north east England. Get in touch - [email protected]

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Articles

Manchester to host world premiere of Marina Abramović’s Balkan Erotic Epic

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Mark Brown

Marina Abramović is an art world superstar well known for challenging visitors’ awkwardness at sex and nudity by, for example, asking them to squeeze through a doorway between a naked couple. This year, she will take it to a new level in what she is calling the most ambitious work of her long career – an immersive erotic epic featuring performers re-enacting ancient and unashamedly sexual rituals. Manchester will be the venue for the world premiere of Abramović’s Balkan Erotic Epic.
Kevin Spacey to be celebrated at Cannes’ Better World gala

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Philip Oltermann |Mark Brown

Kevin Spacey is to accept a lifetime achievement award in Cannes next week, in what may constitute one of the most high-profile “uncancellings” of the #MeToo era. On Tuesday, the Oscar-winning actor is due to receive an award for excellence in film and television at the Better World Fund’s 10th anniversary gala dinner at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes.
‘An unbroken arc of music’: Bradford prepares for 36-hour odyssey of sound

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Mark Brown

“The whole thing is chaos,” said the conductor Charles Hazlewood, before a weekend art project with the artist Jeremy Deller that will feature Handel on Ilkley Moor at sunrise, disco from a tractor, opera blasted out of modified car sound systems and much more. “But it will be organised chaos,” added Hazlewood. “An acceptance of chaos … which is what it’s like to live in a city, isn’t it?
‘Cheeky, kind and full of life’: Mum pays tribute to boy, seven, killed in drugs lab explosion as man jailed

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Mark Brown

A man operating a cannabis drugs lab which caused a devastating explosion in a terraced street has been jailed for 14 years for the deaths of two people, including a seven-year-old boy. The boy, Archie York, was asleep in the flat above the drugs lab being run by Reece Galbraith, 33, when the blast happened in the Benwell area of Newcastle in the early hours of 16 October 2024.
Legacy of Diane Sindall’s murder lives on as 1987 conviction is overturned

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Mark Brown

People still lay flowers at the granite memorial stone close to the place in Birkenhead where Diane Sindall met her horrific, shocking death. It reads: “Murdered 2.8.1986 because she was a woman. In memory of all our sisters who have been raped and murdered. We will never let it be forgotten.”On Merseyside, the killing has a legacy that is still felt today. For nearly four decades, many assumed justice had been served and the right man had been convicted.
‘Moronic mission’: Two men found guilty of felling Sycamore Gap tree

4 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | Mark Brown

Two friends who embarked on a “moronic mission” to fell the Sycamore Gap tree in northern England with a chainsaw have been found guilty of “mindless” criminal damage. Daniel Graham (39) and Adam Carruthers (32) cut down the cherished tree, next to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, as Storm Agnes raged in the early hours of September 28th, 2023. They saw it as a “bit of a laugh” and afterwards “revelled” in their infamy as the crime made headlines around the world, a jury was told.
‘Stealing joy’: the sadness and symbolism of the crime at Sycamore Gap

4 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Mark Brown

“It was just a tree,” said a mystified Adam Carruthers, one of the two men who illegally cut down the tree at Sycamore Gap in the early hours of a stormy night nearly two years ago. “It was almost as if someone had been murdered.”Carruthers was right about the reaction to the felling. Many likened its loss to that of a good friend or relative. Its destruction prompted feelings of sadness, grief and then blind fury. Some people wept. Carruthers was wrong to see it as just a tree.
Two men found guilty of felling Sycamore Gap tree

4 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Mark Brown

Two friends who embarked on a “moronic mission” to fell the Sycamore Gap tree with a chainsaw have been found guilty of “mindless” criminal damage. Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, cut down the cherished tree next to Hadrian’s Wall, in Northumberland, as Storm Agnes raged in the early hours of 28 September 2023. They saw it as a “bit of a laugh” and afterwards “revelled” in their infamy as the crime made headlines around the world, a jury was told.
‘It’s just a tree’: Sycamore Gap accused couldn’t understand its media interest, court hears

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Mark Brown

A man who denies felling the Sycamore Gap tree has said his interest in the story was because he could not understand why it was making so many headlines, “almost as if someone had been murdered”. Adam Carruthers, 32, told a jury: “It was just a tree.”Carruthers and his former friend Daniel Graham, 39, are jointly charged with criminally felling the tree and damaging Hadrian’s Wall, where it had stood for more than 100 years.
UK-wide initiative launched to tackle marginalisation of working-class writers

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Mark Brown

Writing and publishing in the UK is in crisis, with a growing marginalisation of working-class people whose stories and experiences are not being heard, the backers of a new literary magazine and platform have argued. The Early May bank holiday has been chosen for the launch of The Bee, a UK-wide initiative that will include a website, literary magazine, podcast and outreach programme.