The Manchester International Festival: Tree, David Lynch at Home, Parliament of Ghosts, David Nicholls. Only You and much more

The Manchester International Festival is a biannual event, enveloping the city in a wide range of arts events across the genres. We'll be casting our critical net as wide as possible Film director David Lynch has curated a series of events at the venue Home, including an exhibition of his artwork and a series of concerts There's been controversy around the Idris ELba/ Kwame Kei Armah play Tree, but will our panel think it's any good? An exhibition by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama; Parliament of Ghosts at The Whitworth Gallery reclaims and repurposes everyday artefacts David Nicholls' new novel Sweet Sorrow is a tale of adolescent/early adult yearnings framed by a Shakespeare production British indie film Only You follows a largely-carefree couple who get together and decide to have a baby but it's not as easy as they'd hoped And (of course) much much more from MIFTom Sutcliffe's guests are Sarah Crompton, Katie Popperwell and Chris Thorpe. The producer is Oliver JonesPodcast Extra recommendationsSarah: Marius Petipa, The Emperor's Ballet Master by Nadine Meisner Katie: Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast Chris: Abomination by Divide and Dissolve Tom: Spiderman -Into the Spider-verse