Jarrow and all that jazz

Jarrow and all that jazz

A man stares out of the photograph on the front cover of A Shellshocked Nation. Like all the other men in the picture, he is in evening dress; the women are in embroidered gowns, their hair shingled. Most are smiling, a couple look uncertain. Only this man meets our gaze directly. His head is cocked at an inquisitive angle, his lips are pursed, his cheeks hollow, but it’s his empty eyes, with their shrunken pupils, that give his face its unsettl…