The following is the text of my talk at Tbilisi State University on 30 November 2018. I’d like us all to imagine that it is 100 years ago today, the 30th of November 1918. The…Read more…
Review: Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement: Soviet Reality and Emigré Theories, by Catherine Andreyev
Lieutenant General Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov rose steadily in the ranks of the Red Army until finally put in charge of one of Stalin’s “shock armies” and entrusted with the defence…Read more…
Review: The Secret Twenties: British Intelligence, The Russians and the Jazz Age, by Timothy Phillips
Timothy Phillips has written a gripping account of the secret war between the British intelligence services and the Bolsheviks during the 1920s. Based largely on documents he unearthed in the…Read more…
Review: The Spy and the Traitor – The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War, by Ben MacIntyre
Was Michael Foot, leader of the British Labour Party, a Soviet agent? Was Jack Jones, head of the country’s largest trade union, one as well? According to KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky, they both…Read more…
Review: Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was, by Sjón
I read this book during the same week that I saw a theatrical adaptation of Albert Camus’ novel, The Plague. Both works are concerned with epidemics, but there the similarity ends. While the…Read more…
Review: Fear – Trump in the White House, by Bob Woodward
You know how you go to see a movie and all the best parts were already in the preview? That’s a bit like what happened to Bob Woodward’s 360 page book about the Trump White…Read more…
Review: Hiroshima, by John Hersey
John Hersey’s account of the lives of six survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was first published just a year after the events. Despite the passage of more than seventy years, the work…Read more…
Review: Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer, by Roy Peter Clark
Roy Peter Clark has been teaching writing to journalists and others (including schoolchildren) for several decades — and now he has taught me. I’ve read a number of writing books over…Read more…
Review: Vox by Christina Dalcher
In the near future, a populist demagogue comes to power in America and rolls back decades of progress on women’s rights. In the end, women are forced to wear bracelets which limit the number…Read more…
Review: We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Legend and Afterlife of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Film, by Noah Isenberg
This is the story of Casablanca — where the story came from, how the film was made, and its “afterlife” right up until a Facebook post by Elizabeth Warren on a recent New…Read more…
Review: The Boy on the Bridge
M.R. Carey has done it again. The Girl With All the Gifts was a terrific example of post-apocalyptic zombie fiction and this book is (mostly) the prequel. The problem with prequels is that you know…Read more…
Review: The Martian Girl, by Andrew Martin
To be clear, this is not a book about Martians, or even girls. The central character is a woman in her late thirties, Jean Beckett, a writer who lives in today’s London. She is writing…Read more…
Review: Just one damned thing after another, by Jodi Taylor
I love time travel stories. And I love history. This book had a lot of promise. The main character, Max (who’s female), is witty and loveable. The book is full of action. There are lots…Read more…
100 years later: Lessons of the three South Caucasian republics
This is the text of my presentation to the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Regional Lab held in Kvareli, Georgia. The event was attended by young leaders and activists from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia….Read more…
Review: A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles
This is one of those books that I started to read, put aside, and then picked up much later and decided to give it a second chance. And it’s a good thing that I did….Read more…
Review: The Race to Save the Romanovs, by Helen Rappaport
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the murder of the Russian imperial family by the Bolsheviks. Among those killed were not only the hated Tsar Nicholas and his wife Alexandra, but also their…Read more…
Review: The Killing Habit, by Mark Billingham
It’s not a total mystery why I rate Mark Billingham as the best crime writer in Britain today. He’s created a wonderful lead character, Tom Thorne, with a great supporting cast who you…Read more…
Review: The Kremlin’s Candidate, by Jason Matthews
No, not that candidate. In spite of making every effort to keep up with today’s headlines (references to the Russian seizure of Crimea, North Korea’s nuclear programme and so on), author…Read more…
Review: The Kremlin’s Candidate, by Jason Matthews
No, not that candidate. In spite of making every effort to keep up with today’s headlines (references to the Russian seizure of Crimea, North Korea’s nuclear programme and so on), author…Read more…
The Socialist Delegation to Georgia
Presentation to the International Scientific Forum: “Remembering the Georgian Democratic Republic 100 Years On: A Model for Europe” – Tbilisi – June 2018 There was a time when I would not have…Read more…