Where in the World? - 2025/2026 edition  

Has it been a whole YEAR already? Time certainly flies when the news cycle is on super-spin mode! My regular readership will probably remember that I’m reading around the world in the sense that I’m reading fictionalised tales in real locations. This means that SF or Fantasy doesn’t count even if it takes place is a version of London or New York. But it’s the location that counts, not the authors origins or anything of that kind. So, where have I been this last year? Updates, as usual, in BOLD.   

Afghanistan – 2
Australia – 1
Botswana - ½
Burma – 1 (NEW)
Canada – 2
China – 2 (+1)
Crete - 1
Cuba – 2
Cyprus – 1 (NEW)
England – 95 ½ (+9)
Estonia - 1
France – 18 (+4)
Germany – 5 ½
Greece – 2
Holland - 1
India – 2
Ireland – 2 (+1)
Italy – 6 (+2)
Iraq - 1
Jamaica - 1
Japan – 5 ½ (+2)
Norway – 2
Malaya - 1
Portugal – 4 (+1)
Russia – 5 (+1)
Scotland - 2
South Africa – 1
Spain – 4 (+1)
Sweden - 3
Turkey - 2
Ukraine – 2 (+1)
USA – 63 (+5)
Vietnam – 3

That's presently just slightly under 17% of the world... by total number of countries, not total area or anything!
 

Although I’ve only added a disappointing TWO new countries to the list, I am encouraged by the spread even if the US and UK (OK, England) get the lion's share of visits! In the next 12 months I’m going to aim for at least THREE new countries and might even manage to push it to FOUR with a bit of effort. Wish me luck!  

Happy Birthday: Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a Welsh politician who was Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was Vice-President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. Kinnock was positioned on the soft left of the Labour Party.

Born and raised in South Wales, Kinnock was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1970 general election. He became the Labour Party's shadow education minister after the Conservatives won power in the 1979 general election. After the party under Michael Foot suffered a landslide defeat to Margaret Thatcher in the 1983 election, Kinnock was elected Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition. During his tenure as leader, Kinnock proceeded to fight the party's left wing, especially the Militant tendency, and he opposed NUM leader Arthur Scargill's methods in the 1984–1985 miners' strike. He led the party during most of the Thatcher government, which included its third successive election defeat when Thatcher won the 1987 general election. Although Thatcher had won another landslide, Labour regained sufficient seats for Kinnock to remain Leader of the Opposition following the election.

Kinnock led the Labour Party to a surprise fourth consecutive defeat at the 1992 general election, despite the party being ahead of John Major's Conservative government in most opinion polls, which had predicted either a narrow Labour victory or a hung parliament. Shortly afterwards, he resigned as Leader of the Labour Party; he was succeeded in the ensuing leadership election by John Smith. He left the House of Commons in 1995 to become a European commissioner. He went on to become Vice-President of the European Commission under Romano Prodi from 1999 to 2004, before being elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Kinnock in 2005. Until the summer of 2009, he was also the chairman of the British Council and the president of Cardiff University.

[I quite liked Kinnock. I think he would have made a pretty good PM. It's a shame he never got the chance. Instead we got John bloody Major...]

Interesting!

Just Finished Reading: Israel’s Forever War – Israel, Palestine and the Last Hopes for Peace by Paul Moorcraft (FP: 2024) [204pp] 

All eyes seem to be on the Middle East and Israel in particular at the moment and rightly so. With the Straight of Hormuz effectively closed and oil prices rising towards the stratosphere it's hard not to take notice. But why did this war actually happen? Whist not directly about the present adventure in the zone this interesting short book does look at some of the recent background to current events primarily inside Israel/Palestine as well as in the region generally. 

Primarily looking at events after the Hamas attack on 7th October 2023 and the following 12 months of Israel's response, the author attempts throughout to be as even handed and as unemotional as possible – quite possibly to the detriment of the narrative. He looks at the Camp David Accords in 1978, the Oslo Accords in 1993 as well as various summits, conferences and initiatives attempting the solve the ‘Palestinian Problem’ and the repeated attempts to achieve a ‘Two State Solution’ which, at least in my opinion, has been a pipe dream, a fantasy, from the earliest days. The author acknowledges the perception/reality of Gaza being an open-air prison as well as Israeli war-crimes perpetrated against the Palestinian people but, from memory, doesn’t use the word Genocide at any point. Maybe he didn’t agree with the definition or maybe he thought it too emotive, I’m not sure. 

He did point out some of the history of the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Hamas and how the Israeli government actually encouraged the existence and growth of Hamas as a counterweight to other Palestinian groups – essentially a way to divide and weaken all sides and prevent a unified front against Israeli occupation. Ironically this worked far better than anyone no doubt imagined. 

This is a very difficult topic to look at rationally. Emotions are VERY high on both sides and compromise seems (indeed probably is) impossible. History dies hard especially when SO much blood has been spilt over such a long timescale. Personally, I am not confident at all that anything can be resolved inside the existing Israeli borders. One particular thing that did jump out at me was a brief discussion about Israeli incursions into Southern Lebanon (happening yet again as I write this). The world was very surprised by how well Hezbollah forces did against the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) in 2006 effectively fighting them to a standstill. Hezbollah where trained and equipped by Iran. If US forces go into Iran in the coming days/weeks it probably won’t go as well as expected considering the guys who trained the group that held the IDF at bay will be facing them.  

Overall, I thought this a reasonable if rather short account of recent events in and around Israel. There are some irritating repetitions (I wondered if this was a somewhat rushed publication derived from a number of articles mushed together and not completely edited as it should have been) but it certainly wasn’t a poor/bad attempt at describing things. Its thinness (and proximity to events) did limit proper analysis but that wasn’t what the author was going for I suspect. If you just want a fairly brief and mostly high-level view of current events this could be what you’re looking for. Reasonable.  

[Side note: I do feel guilty about not reading about the Ukraine war yet (its coming). Along with reading up about Israel I guess I’ll also have to shoehorn a book or two about Iran and, probably, Cuba at some point. Wars not only teach Americans geography, but they also add to my TBR and generally I don’t need much help in that department.]  

They *tried* that here once... It did NOT go well. People just used other banks ATM's or got Cash Back from like ANY high street store!

Just Finished Reading: The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (FP: 2021) [343pp] 

Cyprus, 1974. It was a bad time to be in love. It was a worse time to love across divided communities. Both Greek Kostas and Turkish Defne knew this but when has love ever been rational? Both of them knew that their families would be horrified at their relationship and both went to great lengths to hide it, but in a small community it wasn’t long before a few knew and a few more started to suspect. As the violence increased Kostas’ mother (who had already lost two sons to the conflict) decided to send him away to an uncle in England. It was only for a short while, until things improved. 25 years later Kostas returned home looking for his lost love. He wasn’t certain she was still alive or if she had moved on with her life, but he had to find out one way or another. 

London, late 2010s. Ada Kazantzakis, 16 years old, is tasked by her history teacher to write about a family member over the Christmas holidays. Coincidentally, her aunt who she has never met, arrives from Cyprus full of anecdotes and sayings from the Turkish side of the family. After an initial rough start Ada begins to discover details of her parent's lives before they moved to England and to discover the roots she had been searching for. 

This is not, as my regular readers will know, my normal read! It was, in essence, a love story (on the surface a simple Romeo & Juliet pairing but much more than that) although coupled with a (somewhat) coming of age tale. But it is much, much, more than that. For one thing this is a beautifully written book, easily the most beautiful read of the year for me. I can see why the author is so acclaimed and popular. It is also the tale of an island and a community that tore itself apart in the early 1970’s on religious/ethnic grounds which split the country in two where it remains to this day. I knew something of the actual events – watching them unfold on the nightly news in my early teens – but this novel made it far more personal and up close. [Side note: one of my early bosses in London was stationed in Cyprus with UN forces there to ‘keep the peace’ He had some interesting stories to tell]. As well as the conflict itself the author dropped in elements of the island's history going back centuries which, naturally, has prompted me to look for history books on the subject – especially regarding the history of the British there (recently in the news of course). 

I REALLY liked this. It was very well told, and I really liked the author's style. I’ll definitely be looking for more by her. I think a good part of this was the fact that it was a very different read. The other thing that really stood out (apart from the historic background) was the characters who seemed very real indeed. Although it's hard to choose who was my favourite, I think (if forced) I’d have to choose the Turkish Cypriot aunt Meryem who I found highly amusing for a host of reasons. [Another side note: Meryem cooks – a lot – and mentioned Turkish baklava. This reminded me of when one of the bosses in London took the admin team out one lunch time to a local Greek restaurant he liked. It was there that I had Greek baklava for the first time and loved it. I’ll see if I can source some of the (very different) Turkish variety and see if I like that too!] One last thing: although the natural environment figured quite a bit in the story, it's the first time that a TREE was a main character in the tale (outside Fantasy or SF novels where strange creatures are a given). It worked though, which shows how strong her characterisation skills are! Very highly recommended although sensitive souls will need a tissue handy for the sad bits.