Mar 14, 2014 | Latest
Long an admirer of Tony Benn, the first time I actually met him was in 1984 when he came over to Belfast at the invitation of Sinn Féin and stood with myself and Gerry Adams outside Belfast’s Crumlin Road High Court to protest against the ‘supergrass’ trials...
Mar 6, 2014 | Latest
Finished a wonderful, first novel, Volga German by Colin Sloan. Ingenious, imaginative and exceptionally well-written, it is the story of Andreas Mensche, one of those ethnic Germans living in the USSR in the River Volga region since the 18th century preserving their...
Jan 24, 2014 | Latest
Finished Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig, the Austrian writer who with his second wife committed suicide in Brazil in 1940. I had previously read The Post Office Girl which I really liked. In 1934 Zweig had been driven into exile by the Nazis and first immigrated to...
Dec 31, 2013 | Latest
My letter to the Irish Times in regard to the release of State Papers for 1983 appeared in today’s edition. Reading these papers over the years I have realised how, easily, subjective and unreliable statements can become orthodox ‘facts’ just because...
Nov 20, 2013 | Latest
Finished Liberating Paris by Linda Bloodworth Thomason which is set in smalltown Paris, Arkansas, and is about six childhood friends who have just turned forty, their loves and lives. Not bad. 14th November. Did short tour of St Gallen, Switzerland, hosted by Ruth...
Oct 30, 2013 | Latest
Last Saturday I met Olga Mamonova Baker an art collector and exhibitor of 20th century Russian paintings who manages the East Hill Gallery in London. She had been going to Armagh later that afternoon for some political events but caught an earlier flight in order to...
