Book At Bedtime

Santa was very good to me this year again. I got the following books: Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson (about the American Civil War); The Horologicon by Mark Forsyth (about the lost words of the English language); Life Times by Nadine Gordimer (six...

‘Rudi’ – Book Launch

My new novel, renamed ‘Rudi – In the Shadow of Knulp’ – is being published in Germany and launched in Belfast as part of ‘Feile an Phobail 25’ (a series of events in the run-up to the silver jubilee of the festival next August). My...

Bestiary Calendar 2013

My friend and German translator Jörg W. Rademacher has collaborated with the French poet Yves Broussard from Marseille and artist Oliver Soskice to produce a bestiary-calendar for 2013. It’s in three languages: French-German the recto, French-English the verso with...

John McMichael Event

Last Thursday I was invited by Vince Curry of the UDA-linked Ulster Political Research Group to participate in a panel discussion in a loyalist area of Lisburn as part of the John McMichael Memorial Debate. John McMichael was probably the most military-minded (yet...

Best Speech Ever

Interviewed by Martina Purdy on ‘the art of the political speech’ for tomorrow night’s BBC magazine programme (1st November), ‘The View’, which replaced ‘Hearts & Minds’ but is not as good. Asked my opinion on the best speech I ever heard I cited Martin Luther...