Mar 20, 2013 | Latest
Last Saturday (16th March) I spoke at an event in County Donegal, to commemorate Kevin Brady who was killed twenty-five years ago during the funerals of the three IRA Volunteers killed in Gibraltar. Good turn-out. Very emotional. 15th March. Introduced Senator David...
Mar 8, 2013 | Latest
Finished The Horologicon by Mark Forsyth, a hilarious, intelligent book about the lost words of the English language! Forsyth is the author of the 2011 best seller The Etymologicon. Here are just some of my favourites! Culf – the bed fluff that lodges in your navel....
Feb 20, 2013 | Latest
Finished ‘Weimar Culture – The Outsider as Insider’ by Peter Gay. Doesn’t really get into its stride until about page 50 or thereafter. On the influence of poetry Gay writes: “If right-wing nationalists had their poets, so did the Social Democrats. And if...
Jan 9, 2013 | Latest
My royal sixtieth birthday today! And to celebrate they hoisted the wrong flag on the City Hall! But it was the thought that counts. Lots of wonderful presents from my wife and family, including The Black Count: Glory, revolution, betrayal and the real Count of Monte...
Dec 30, 2012 | Latest
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...
Nov 29, 2012 | Latest
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...
