Chatham House is the Royal Institute ofInternational Affairs. It is based in St. James’ Square, Mayfair, London, a short walk from Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. I have been a member of Chatham House for several months but with me being based
Continue readingTag: Politics
Guerrilla Heroico
The Cuban Revolution was an earth-shattering event with huge consequences internationally, not just in Latin America, but further afield. I felt the impact myself whilst travelling across Scandinavia in 2005. I’d run out of clean underwear and, while scanning the
Continue readingRiposa In Pace Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi has died today at the age of 86. It has been said that not a day has gone by in Italian news media over the past 50 years without him making headlines of some sort. He certainly was
Continue readingHappy 100th Birthday Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger is a political heavyweight. Of that there can be no doubt. Even the harshest of this US politician-come-guru, Henry Kissinger’s critics will have to admit that he is just that – a veteran in the ring of international
Continue readingReview: Defending The Realm – MI5 and The Shayler Affair – by Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding
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
Continue readingReview: The Assault On Truth – Boris Johnson and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism – by Peter Oborne
I think everyone that has ever heard of Boris Johnson associates him with lies. Oborne, who is an established veteran political journalist, in this relatively brief text, exposes the extent of the former Conservative Prime Minister’s almost total aversion to
Continue readingReview: Turkish Awakening – A Personal Discovery of Modern Turkey – by Alev Scott
Alev Scott is a young female Brit whose mother has Turkish Cypriot roots and in this great study of modern turkey she relocates to Istanbul and immerses herself as much as possible in Turkish society Long time leader Erdogan, has
Continue readingReview: Rights of Man – by Thomas Paine
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
Continue readingReview: The Origins of Totalitariansm – by Hannah Arendt
This book is quite old, first published in 1951, it dates from a period when the totalitarian reality of Hitler and Stalin were very much fresh in the mind. Hannah Arendt was a German Jew and this work is both
Continue readingZlata’s Diary – A Child’s Life in Sarajevo – by Zlata Filipović
What’s a grown 45 year old male doing reading a little Bosnian girl’s diary you might ask yourself. Well, it cropped up as a recommendation in a documentary on the war in the former Yugoslavia, a subject to which I
Continue readingReview: Zlata’s Diary – A Child’s Life in Sarajevo – by Zlata Filipović
What’s a grown 45 year old male doing reading a little Bosnian girl’s diary you might ask yourself. Well, it cropped up as a recommendation in a documentary on the war in the former Yugoslavia, a subject to which I
Continue readingReview: Red Horizons – The True Story of Nicolae & Elena Ceausescus’ Crimes, Lifestyle, and Corruption – by Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa
I was just chatting away to Ionutz a security nurse in the local mental hospital and he’s Romanian. I passed through Bucharest a few years ago en route to Istanbul on a train journey traversing Eastern Europe. Romania seemed quite
Continue readingReview: Class of 88 – Find the Warehouse. Lose the Hitmen. Pump the Beats – by Wayne Anthony
This book is about a promoter’s journey in the beginnings of the Acid House music scene that took over Great Britain back in the late 1980s, cementing a new popular culture that would grip the masses of rebellious youth at
Continue readingReview: The Motorcycle Diaries – by Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara
I’ve read three of Che Guevara’s other books, the theory on guerrilla warfare and the diaries of his campaigning in the revolutions of Cuba and Bolivia. The Motorcycle Diaries precede these other critical works and document Che’s travels across Latin
Continue readingReview: The Last Assassin – The Hunt for the Killers of Julius Caesar – by Peter Stothard
‘Et tu Brute’ – these are the immortal words of Shakespeare, recounting the treacherous death of one of Rome’s greatest Emperors, Julius Caesar. This book, by Peter Stothard, is a historical novel, recounting the last days of Caesar and the
Continue readingReview: On War – by Carl von Clausewitz
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
Continue readingReview: Memoirs – by Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev was one of the most influential and critical figures of the twentieth century. When I was growing up in the 1980s he was part os a set of international world leaders that seemingly had much more influence over
Continue readingReview: World Order – Reflections on the Character of Nations and the Course of History – by Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger is a very famous international American statesman. This is the first book of his that I have read. I was drawn to exploring his views as I have always noticed him throughout my life as being a key
Continue readingReview: Hidden Hand – How The Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping The World – by Clive Hamilton & Mareike Ohlberg
As a committed sinophile, this recently written book seemed a necessity. As China continues its rise to being the most dominant national force economically on the planet, it is quite difficult to obtain meaningful and relevant and unbiased factual information
Continue readingReview: The Near East Since The First World War – by M.E.Yapp
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
Continue readingLe Clan du Néon
Le Clan du Néon combat le gaspillage en éteignant publicités et enseignes lumineuses Baptisés Le Clan du Néon, Pêcheurs d’énergie ou Zéro Watt, des militants écologistes, actifs dans plus de vingt villes en France, mènent des expéditions nocturnes pour éteindre
Continue readingReview: Viva La Revolución by Eric Hobsbawm
This is my first venture into respected leftist author, Eric Hobsbawm’s work. The book was compiled after the author’s death in 2012 and is a collection of his writings on Latin America after he spent over forty years passionately exploring
Continue readingVisit from Hungarian Ambassador, His Excellency Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky & TALK: In the Spirit of Rubik’s Cube – Hungary’s Smart Transition to a Knowledge Based Economy, Cardiff University School of Business, 23.11.18
His Excellency, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, is the ambassador to the court of St James. His background is in finance, industry, publishing, armed forces and politics. His hobbies include polo, showjumping, shooting and sailing. Kristóf was pleased with the attendance of his
Continue readingReview: Kanaval – Vodou, Politics and Revolution on the Streets of Haïti – by Leah Gordon
Leah Gordon is a former punk artist from London. She is also a photographer and this book reflects upon her experiences of Kanaval on the streets of Jacmel in Haïti between 1995 and 2010. Haïti was the first black republic
Continue readingReport on Mental Health in Southeast Wales for John Griffiths AM and Jessica Morden MP
I have been a non-consenting patient of southeast Wales’ mental health services since 2nd April 1997. I have almost amassed twenty years of living within this closed mental health system. I write this report with a view to enacting real change
Continue readingReview: Spain 1812-2004 – by Christopher J Ross
I have read this book as I am doing a university course next year on Spanish History in the Modern Period. The book is devised for language students and at the end of each chapter excerpts in Spanish are provided,
Continue readingReview: Women and the Second World War in France, 1939-1948: Choices and Constraints – by Hanna Diamond
This book focuses on the role of French women during World War 2 and the immediate aftermath. It is clear that the women of France bore the brunt of dealing with the occupier, very often their men away, detained as
Continue readingThatcher Thatcher, Freedom Snatcher
This article is inspired by a bad dream that has just woken me up at 0740am. ‘Without a doubt, princes become great when they overcome difficulties and obstacles that are imposed upon them; and therefore fortune, especially when she wishes
Continue readingGuerrilla Heroico
Discuss how textual and visual representations of the Rebel Army during and after the Cuban Revolution contributed to the myth of the heroic guerrilla in Latin America. The original iconic 1968 stylized ‘Guerrilla Heroico’ Che Guevara imagecreated by Jim Fitzpatrick,
Continue readingGuerrilla Heroico
Discuss how textual and visual representations of the Rebel Army during and after the Cuban Revolution contributed to the myth of the heroic guerrilla in Latin America. The original iconic 1968 stylized ‘Guerrilla Heroico’ Che Guevara imagecreated by Jim Fitzpatrick,
Continue readingReview: The Politics of Translation in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance – by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Luise von Flotow, Daniel Russell
The Politics of Translation in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance by Renate Blumenfeld-KosinskiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars I discovered this book in the Cardiff University library and thought it would provide a valuable insight into translation in history.
Continue readingReview: The Politics of Translation in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
The Politics of Translation in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski My rating: 4 of 5 stars I discovered this book in the Cardiff University library and thought it would provide a valuable insight into translation in
Continue reading