The human rights lawyer and campaigner Baroness Shami Chakrabarti was born in Kenton, north-west London, in 1969. She studied law at the London School of Economics and worked as an in-house lawyer at the Home Office before becoming director of the advocacy group Liberty in 2003, a role she held until 2016. That year, she became a life peer and was appointed shadow attorney general for England and Wales (until 2020). Chakrabarti lives in south London and has one son. Her third book, Human Rights: The Case for the Defence ,is published by Allen Lane on 2 May.
1. Theatre
English at the Other Place, RSC, Stratford, from 9 May to 1 June (then Kiln, London, 5-29 June)
I’m looking forward to seeing this Pulitzer prize-winning play by the American-Iranian playwright Sanaz Toossi. I read her play Wish You Were Here, about five female friends in Iran during and after the revolution, and it was very beautiful, delicate feminist writing from a dissident perspective. This new one, also set in Iran, is about trying to learn a foreign language and losing your own – it’s using language as a metaphor for the migrant experience. This feels very important given our interest in Iran at the moment, and it stars Sara Hazemi, who was brilliant in A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain in 2022.
2. Memoir
I’ve nearly finished reading Salman Rushdie’s new memoir, which I think is some of his best writing since Midnight’s Children – and I’m not just saying that because it comes out of such a horrific experience. The writing is very humble and sparse and honest. There is hurt in it, but he doesn’t express hatred towards the man who tried to kill him in 2022 and he’s very loving about his family and friends. We are fascinated by people who’ve been to the brink and come back to articulate their thoughts and feelings, and this account is really worth reading.
3. Concert venue
Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester
This music school puts on almost daily lunchtime concerts that anyone can attend. I didn’t realise this until a friend mentioned it to me. Some of the students practising their performances are really young, and goodness me they are magnificent. These music schools are always under threat but they are amazing places, and not elitist. Chetham’s also has a fantastic library, which you can see by appointment – Marx and Engels worked there. I’ve been only once, but I stayed for practically a whole day and I’ll certainly go again.
4. TV
This Town (BBC One)
This is a fabulous six-part BBC drama set in the 1980s in Birmingham and Coventry. It’s about masculinity and how conflict can steal the kindness and creativity from young men. There are some fabulous performances from young actors I hadn’t come across before. Levi Brown looks like a young Muhammad Ali. And it’s nice to see Michelle Dockery and Geraldine James, who you often see in period dramas, appearing in a hard-hitting crime thriller. It’s beautifully shot, and the music – especially for a child of the 80s like me – is great.
5. Museum
Imperial War Museum, London
People who don’t know the Imperial War Museum are always surprised when they visit because it catalogues war but it doesn’t glorify it, and it has been modernising its collection in recent years. The photography section is particularly strong and right now there’s a brilliant exhibition of work by the late photojournalist Tim Hetherington. Visiting a museum about the human costs of war feels very timely when half the British population, according to polls, fear a third world war and we’ve got hot conflicts in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere. It does such a wonderful, delicate job of bringing out the human stories.
6. Film
Civil War (dir Alex Garland)
To take my mind off the Rwanda debacle, I went to see this very fine modern war film. It’s set in a not-too-distant future US where rival alliances of states are fighting each other. Kirsten Dunst is a hard-nosed journalist covering the war and putting herself in incredibly dangerous situations in the belief that if you show the cruelty and horror, people will turn away from it. She’s been covering wars in other countries all her career but now it’s happening at home. It’s a very powerful and poignant film about civilisation and humanity in existential crisis.
