The Belt and Road Initiative, launched by China in 2013, is a transformative foreign policy project aimed at enhancing China’s global influence through trade routes reminiscent of the Silk Road. While it has received mixed responses, particularly from Western nations, it offers countries alternatives to Western hegemony, promoting economic development but also raising geopolitical tensions, especially with rival powers like India and Russia.
The author reflects on discovering Christine and The Queens, appreciating their bold Glastonbury 2023 performance. They draw parallels between French cultural norms and British prudishness while celebrating the band’s artistic expression. The author also highlights their fond memories of France, ultimately valuing empowering art, with a shoutout to DJ Laurent Garnier.
View More Christine and The Queens – Tilted
I had previously read Alison Weir’s most excellent book specifically on Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine many years ago so the author was familiar to me. I chanced upon this title in my local library (Caldicot) and thought I’d give it a go. It covers the lives of several British Queens,…
View More Review: Queens of the Crusades – by Alison Weir
I randomly found this book on the shelves of Caldicot library. I read a lot of books on U.K. Intelligence services: MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. During the war…. Mt grandfather (GaGa) was in 618 Squadron RAF and 143 Coastal Command. He didn’t really speak to me much about World War…
View More Review: MI9: A History of the Secret Service for Escape and Evasion in World War Two – by Helen Fry
This is just another one of the many books I’ve read on the security services / spies / intelligence agencies in general. I guess I have a morbid fascination. Non-fiction throws up some pretty weird stuff – Life itself is a lot stranger than fiction. This tale from a turncoat…
View More Review: Defending The Realm – MI5 and The Shayler Affair – by Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding
I like the art of Picasso, I like the city of Paris, and I like the books of Dave Haslam. I was therefore pleased to hear of the release of this book which studies the life and art of famous Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso, in particular his séjour in the…
View More Review: Adventure Everywhere – Pablo Picasso’s Paris Nightlife – by Dave Haslam
Thomas Paine is an important writer at an important time that bequeaths us in his ‘Rights of Man’ a fundamental shakeup of what our democratic rights as citizens should be, drawing especially on the French Revolution and also American Revolution and the fundamental rights that their new revolutionary societies produced…
View More Review: Rights of Man – by Thomas Paine
‘War and Peace’ needs no introduction. It holds its place in the minds of contemporary society as a literary classic. One cannot pick up a newspaper article on great books without a passing mention of Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece. Like other classical works such as the Bible, I think that their…
View More Review: War and Peace – by Leo Tolstoy
In addition to Sun Tzu’s Art of War, this book authored by Prussian officer Carl von Clausewitz is the quintessential classic book on military theory. The book (although this edition was only an abridged version) puts forward in detail theory for all elements of war, from politics to military leadership,…
View More Review: On War – by Carl von Clausewitz
This book was written in 1990 and is thus a bit dated. The postscript announces the start of the first Gulf War after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Post World War 1 saw most of the current political boundaries drawn in the Near East or as we now most predominantly…
View More Review: The Near East Since The First World War – by M.E.Yapp
Graham Greene is a classic early twentieth century English novelist. I remember studying Brighton Rock for my school GCSEs.The Third Man is set in the murky underworld of post World War 2 Vienna. The Austrian capital has been quartered into four allied zones: English, French, American and Russian. A front…
View More Review: The Third Man and The Fallen Idol – by Graham Greene
Ingrid Betancourt was one of the most high profile political prisoners in the world during her captivity in the Colombian Jungle at the hands of the FARC-EP, Colombia’s left wing communist guerrillas. A brutal civil war has raged for the best part of 60 years in this Southern hemisphere country.…
View More Review: Even Silence has an End – My six years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle – by Ingrid Betancourt
On the Second of April 1997, at the point of my first contact with the Mental Health Act, I had my life’s dreams shattered. On that day, my parents had been persuaded to take me to see a psychiatrist at the local mental hospital, St Cadoc’s in Caerleon. I hadn’t…
View More Landlocked – Mental Health in the UK and the Prevention of International Travel, Translation and Foreign Language EducationThis is one of the most remarkable books I have ever read, a first witness account of some of the most important world events of the first half of the twentieth century, a rich period for revolutionary events and the author, Victor Serge, a Belgian born Russian, is perfectly poised…
View More Review: Memoirs of a Revolutionary – by Victor Serge
The revolutions of 1830, 1848, and 1870 significantly impacted French working classes, spurring their organization and political consciousness. Despite initial betrayals and repression by the bourgeoisie, these uprisings fostered advances in labor rights, living standards, and democratic participation, ultimately leading to a more cohesive and recognized working class by the end of the century.
View More Nineteenth Century Revolutions and the French Working Classes