Back to Basics is a homage to 1920s-1940s jazz and soul artists.
"He returns to the front, where he is shot through the throat by a sniper, an injury that takes him out of the war
 A decade later he wrote: "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 to 2023 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic Socialism, as I understand it

