Just Finished Reading: Istanbul – Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk (FP: 2005) [333pp] 

On reading this interesting memoir by the Nobel Prize winning Turkish author I was pleased that I had read a history of modern Istanbul beforehand. This is, however, no criticism of this work. The previous history of the city gave me a good – indeed excellent – foundation to understand the deeper context that pervaded this work. The author was born in Istanbul in 1952 (around the time that the previous history book ended its narrative) so grew up in a city in the midst of change – from ancient to modern, from East to West, from religious to secular. It's not surprising that such a transition moulded and transformed the other into someone, in effect, living between two worlds and being nostalgic for a world that had been ‘lost’ (and was indeed crumbling or actively burning down around him) whilst struggling to exist in an officially sanctioned modern western looking world that was unfamiliar to him. It's odd how the official focus was very much directed at the west as an icon to look up to and emulate whilst the countries, and cities, rich Ottoman history was officially ignored, sidelined and sometimes actually denigrated. I think that would confuse anyone – never mind a sensitive soul searching for himself whilst walking the streets of an ancient city full of a rich culture from across an extensive fallen empire. I wasn’t at all surprised that his first impulse was to paint in order to reflect what he saw every day on his youthful wanderings. 

This was a memoir of painful honesty. The common theme throughout was the deep melancholy he felt growing up in a place that had not only seemed to forget its own history but had effectively been ordered to do so. Looking back was frowned upon. Wanting to look back, needing to look back to make sense of things was questionable and quite possibly disloyal. The only way to face was forwards and westwards. The authors quest for who he was and where he fitted into the grand scheme of things – especially within a Turkish historical context – was complicated (to say the least!) by his families emotional and financial slow-motion collapse throughout his young life. Despite being born into a moderately wealthy family (from money accumulated by his grandfather) his father continued to make bad financial decisions throughout his life bleeding money and slowly impoverishing the extended family. On top of this the authors father was often away from home and all too often with women other than his wife. This added complication was woven into the narrative almost as a microcosm of the city itself as it progressively crumbled, collapsed and was neglected into picturesque rubble. 

Apart from the often-beautiful writing (you can certainly tell why he won the Nobel Prize for Literature) the thing that I really liked about this book was the many photographs scattered throughout the text. Many of them were good and quite a few were simply excellent – sometimes breathtakingly so. I was MOST impressed. This book gives a great feel to the city of the author’s birth. He makes it seem exotic and familiar, dilapidated and picturesque, crowded and abandoned, timeless and ephemeral. I found it quite haunting. I look forward to reading more by this author and will likely be returning to him later in the year. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in the liminal spaces – in more ways than one - between the west and the exotic east. 

Translated from the Turkish by Maureen Freely

Just Finished Reading: Midnight at the Pera Palace – The Birth of Modern Istanbul by Charles King (FP: 2014) [378pp] 

It must have been quite THE shock. Not only was the Ottoman empire defeated in the Great War but was about to be dismembered by the victorious western powers. The only fly in the ointment (or possibly yoghurt) was the young Turk – Mustafa Kemal (later known as Ataturk). Opposed to both the crumbling and corrupt Ottoman dynasty AND the Allies now occupying Istanbul he had his own ideas for the future of Turkey, but first he would have to save his new nation state. The ancient enemy, Greece, had already begun its advance into Turkish territory and needed to be stopped. After much bloody fighting it was and Kemal could now negotiate from a position of strength. Both unwilling and unable to fight another war so soon after the Great one, the Allies and Turks agreed on boundaries and the future ethnic make-up of both previously Ottoman occupied territory Turkey was giving up as well as territory it was taking full control of prompting a massive compulsory move of peoples. Istanbul was dead centre of the ensuing chaos, refugee crisis, modernisation decrees, and the transformation of a deceased Muslim empire into a secular western facing nation state.  

My usual focus of attention, and the zones I know most about, are Europe (including the UK) and North America. My ‘knowledge’ of other areas particularly Africa and South America is, at best, scant. Likewise, my ‘knowledge’ of Asia beyond the Ancient World is hazy to say the least so it was good to look at the birth of a modern near-Asian nation entering the modern world from the end of WW1 to the beginning of the Cold War. Interestingly, the author chose a unique lens through which to view the rapid and radical change which occurred in Turkey/Istanbul during this period – a hotel called the Pera Palace. Looking at the people who stayed there – including (briefly) people like Leon Trotsky! - together with diplomats, spies, journalists, authors and many others. Tales from that exotic city reminded me of Second World War Lisbon (FULL of spies), Cold War Berlin (FULL of Spies) and Hollywood Casablanca (FULL of refugees). I hadn’t realised just how many Russians ended up there after the 1917 Revolution and Civil War that followed nor how important a node it was for the post-WW2 transit of European Jews to the Holy Land. Fascinating stuff! 

As you can tell I learnt a LOT from this excellent history and look forward to reading anything else the author has produced – his works on Odessa and The Black Sea definitely interest me. Definitely recommended to anyone interested in the regions RICH history. 

[Odd side note: Midnight at the Pera Palace is a Turkish time travel historical drama television series directed by Emre Şahin starring Hazal Kaya, Tansu Biçer, Selahattin Paşalı and James Chalmers. The show was released on Netflix on March 3, 2022, with the first season consisting of 8 episodes. Centered around the real-life Pera Palace Hotel, the series was inspired by the 2014 historical non-fiction book Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul by Charles King. The series was renewed for a second season, which aired on September 12, 2024. How WEIRD is THAT?] 

Just Finished Reading: Chickenhawk by Robert Mason (FP: 1983) [399pp] 

Robert Mason wanted to fly for as long as he could remember. Gaining his civilian pilot's licence as soon as he could he still wasn’t satisfied. He wanted to fly helicopters but the only way he could afford that was to be trained by the Army, so he joined up. Despite the worsening situation in SE Asia, he never expected to be sent to Vietnam. That, among other things, just showed his lack of understanding about the world. Within weeks of getting his helicopter pilot's licence he was on his way overseas with a new type of combat unit – the 1st Air Cavalry. For the next 12 months, from August 1965 to July 1966, he would fly over 1,000 combat missions delivering troops into hot LZs (Landing Zones), returning later to pick up the survivors, the wounded and the dead, he would deliver ammunition, food and other supplies to artillery units on lonely hilltops, and he would fly top brass and reporters across the jungle to ‘assess how things were going’. Apart from being an effective member of his squadron and not letting the guys down he had only one driving ambition – to survive his tour (despite everything) and return home to his wife and child. He did (no spoiler here as he wrote this book!) but as a changed man plagued by nightmares and increasing addicted to alcohol and drugs. 

This was a mistake. I had thought, going in, that this was a novel so I could add another Vietnam entry into my fictional world tour. The book turned out to be, however, a personal account of the authors experiences as part of an experimental tactical unit expected to win the war in Vietnam in a matter of months. This was, in many ways, an impressive work. Not only did the author (not a professional writer in any way) convey the reality of modern warfare – the chaos and incompetence at all levels was honestly shocking – but did so in such a way that you could almost imagine sitting in that helicopter with him throughout the narrative. No doubt he pulled his punches from time to time to reduce the grimness of the tale, but what he did end up conveying was bad enough.  

The new ‘Air Cav’ system was expected to be a true war winner. Afterall, the most powerful military in the world was fighting (if you could use that word) a bunch of guys in sandals carried AK-47s, right? How could they possibly lose? Yet much to the surprise of the top brass (although quickly understood by the men on point) not only did the Vietcong not quickly go down to defeat and despondency they not only fought back but fought back effectively – and the US military had little response except more and more troops and more and more firepower. Looking at it with 60 years of hindsight it's easier to see why they failed. Firstly, it was all (effectively) new to the Americans despite their experiences in WW2. On top of that they were trying out, with great hopes, their new lethal toys against a supposedly primitive enemy. Their (actually warranted) arrogance wouldn’t allow them to see problems before they arose or solutions once the problems morphed into an intractable mire. The author related a simple but significant fact – before flying into his first combat zone he, and other pilots and gunners, were promised body armour. This finally arrived SEVEN months into a twelve-month deployment. Apart from logistical incompetence the reason I think this happened was because no one believed that they’d still be involved in the war for 6 months, never mind in excess of 16 YEARS. This level of over confidence (or arrogance) resulted in a lot of unnecessary deaths on all sides.  

I’d read a bit about this war before, watched movies and documentaries and actually remember watching it on the nightly news growing up, but this account was a real eye-opener to the reality on the ground. If you want to be exposed to how things where ‘in country’ from a first-hand perspective this is a very good place to start. Definitely recommended and more from this combat zone to come. 

[Highest page count of the year so far: 399pp][+17pp]

Just Finished Reading: 1946 – The Making of the Modern World by Victor Sebestyen (FP: 2014) [382pp] 

The celebrations were short-lived. The war was over but the dying, the hunger, the desperation continued. Across Europe, especially so in Germany, much had been destroyed. Many houses had fallen, power where it existed at all was intermittent at best, sewers had been smashed, hospitals lay in ruins and roads were only slowly becoming passable. As if the populations of central Europe needed any additional suffering, they realised all too well that winter was coming. Meanwhile, in vast areas of the devastated Soviet Union, millions had died and millions more did not know if they would survive to see years end. In the Far East, fighting continued in China in a resurgent Civil War whilst the survivors of defeated Japan struggled with food shortages and the shame of defeat. The global war was over but things, if anything, had gotten worse for many. 

A world war may have ended in 1945 but a new world, the world we live in today, began for many in 1946. With the battered but triumphant Soviet Union taking control of its occupied territories the conditions we now know as the Cold War began to take shape. US President Truman was becoming aware that America falling back into glorious isolation was not an option as the Soviets pushed forward at every opportunity and the Europeans had little power to resist. The US also saw that it could not, and would not, simply abandon Japan to its fate especially with the Soviets and now the Chinese becoming threats to US power projection.  

In the Middle East the Jewish settlements in Palestine were advocating for more say in their future and for unrestricted Jewish immigration especially with the growing realisation of the enormity of the Holocaust. Some groups advocated for independence and were both able and willing to use violence to achieve it. The British, meanwhile, had neither the resources nor the stomach for a fight. Likewise, in India, the British were determined to leave with almost unseemly haste to save money and its shrinking Imperial reputation. Many would die in the process of creating the three nations of Israel, India and Pakistan and the consequences of those fights would still be with us more that 70 years later. 

I had a fair idea that the end of the Second World War was bad and that the recovery was both long and hard. I had little appreciation of the levels of suffering – globally – of SO many people as the political and geographical tectonic plates shifted into a world more recognisably modern. The fact that MILLIONS of people in Europe alone (mostly German) were forced from their homes at gunpoint and at very short notice, pointed towards the border and told to leave or die is enough to give anyone pause. The fact that many thousands of people were housed in the concentration camps they had so far survived in because the Allies had nowhere else to put them again gives you pause. The best thing that could be said is that at least they got better food if not always better conditions and that it was ‘temporary’. The word GRIM just doesn’t do it justice. 

World War Two may have officially ended in 1945 but the suffering continued LONG after the guns finally stopped. The results in Europe, the East, the Middle East and the Far East still live with us today in the memories of those who lived through it and the headlines we see every day. This was an awesome work of modern history. Not only did I learn a great deal (I’ve hardly touched on much of the book) but it reset some of my thinking about the aftermath of the war. I’ll definitely be reading more about the post-1945 period and more by this excellent author. I already own his work on 1956 Hungary and will be collecting his other works too. Very Highly recommended and a highlight of the year. 

I was going to be jumping ahead to the 1960's next but plans change! so, on to the 1970's....

[Highest page count of the year so far: 382pp][+9pp]

Just Finished Reading: Foreign Devils on the Silk Road – The Search for the Lost Treasures of Central Asia by Peter Hopkirk (FP: 1980) [241pp] 

It was arguably one of the most important trade routes in history. It connected the great Empires of the West to those of the East and allowed goods, ideas and disease to travel the globe in relative ease. They were the Silk Roads (plural). But all things pass and trade routes are no exception. First, they pass into disuse, then history and finally into legend itself. But around the turn of the 20th century rumours of lost cities, ancient sites lost in the desert and uncounted treasure began circling the European capitals. Strange exotic objects began appearing in markets and, finally, expeditions were planned and funded in institutions from Britain, Germany, Russia, Japan and the USA.  

Knowledge of the exact route of the various strands that made up the Silk Routes was approximate at best. The only way to find them at that time was travel overland with the knowledge available and ask the locals what they knew – which, all too often, was very little. Rumours, legends, warnings, stories of ghosts in the desert and the curses placed on treasure by jealous spirits wasn’t exactly a road map. But hints of sunken cities and a handful of ancient objects in the homes of the headmen was enough to start with. The first tentative diggings yielded little but then, finally, paydirt. In the disputed areas bordering China a host of documents emerged from the sand. The burgeoning world of archaeology was aflame. Museums and galleries across the world demanded their own examples of artifacts, paintings, documents and anything small enough to transport across the vast (and often uncharted) distances safely to London, Berlin, Paris or New York.  

The men who responded to the call were a varied bunch. Some, indeed most, were experts in their respective fields. Others were there for the glory of being first, of making their names and reputations and, of course, for sheer the adventure of it all. What almost no one cared about was the rights of the locals to their own history. Naturally some serious rationalisation went on. The locals were all too often ignorant of what lay beneath the sand or high in the mountains. There was also the very real danger that time and the environment would destroy much of cultural or historic significance – so why not remove it and place it in a museum thousands of miles away for ‘safe-keeping’. Of course, later Chinese authorities couldn’t help but mention the number of irreplaceable artifacts destroyed by the Allied bombing of Germany in WW2 held in its city museums. 

This was honestly a fascinating read. If you’ve ever enjoyed an Indiana Jones movie (well the first decent one) you’ll enjoy the reality even more. Although there’s no Nazi archaeologists looking for supernatural wonder weapons there are plenty of Chinese warlords, mysterious priests, Japanese spies, British agents and competing dig teams almost coming to outright conflict over who had a right to dig where. Added into the mix, if that wasn’t enough, was extreme weather events, the very real possibility of death from cold, heat, disease, wild animals, local treasure hunters, and thirst. Coming out of the region alive, even empty handed, was an achievement in itself! This is definitely recommended for all adventure fans and those interested in the real-life origins of one of our own cultural icons – Indie! More to come from this author.

Just Finished Reading: Hard Travel to Sacred Places by Rudolph Wurlitzer (FP: 1994) [161pp] 

The trip was, partially at least, planned. His wife had been contracted to photograph various sacred sites across Asia, and the author had some meetings planned with film makers to rough out some movie scripts. But a big part of the reason for the trip was to help ‘come to terms’ with the recent death of his wife’s son who, at age 21, had died in a car crash. 

The couple travelled to Thailand, Burma and Cambodia by plane, train and a variety of automobiles (and boats). During the several weeks of the journey they suffered through intense heat, power cuts, the threat of gunfire, illness, lack of running water or phone service, and of course waves of crushing grief. Needless to say, this was not a vacation full of rainbows and unicorns. But it did have its compensations – the scenery was often amazing, and the sacred sites themselves seemed otherworldly (which, in a way, they were). Plus, the people they met, both arranged and otherwise, added an extra dimension as local experts and Buddhist monks discussed the history of temple complexes and the varying philosophies behind their builders.  

I picked up this slim volume decades ago in (I think) a local Book Barn simply because it caught my eye in passing. I was probably routing around in the Religion/Eastern Philosophy section I was interested in at that time and thought it would be worth a read. It was. Rather sombre at times, as you might imagine, it is often beautifully written (he was the scriptwriter for Little Buddha directed by Bernardo Bertolucci in 1993) and filled with imagery which will stay with you for quite a while. The author has been doing his level best to practice (and investigate) various shades of Buddhism over the decades so has some interesting insights into life (and, naturally given the circumstances, death) which are thought provoking. A sometimes strange read, but an interesting one. Reasonable.    

Just Finished Reading: The Power of Geography – Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World by Tim Marshall (FP: 2021) [364pp] 

This was, essentially, a continuation of the authors previous work on Geopolitics – Prisoners of Geography. Here he is more forward looking although each section still contains a goodly slice of history for the required context. Starting off with Australia (which I remembered him musing over in the previous book) he looks at that continental country in context with its place in the Japan, South Korea, China axis, especially focused on the ongoing problems in the South China Sea. This does look like a potential conflict zone in the years ahead if cooler heads fail to prevail. I doubt if it would take too much pushing to start an actual shooting war – never mind how stupid and pointless that conflict would be. 

Moving onto the ever ‘interesting’ Middle East zone, we looked at both Iran and Saudi Arabia. I’ve read a little (emphasis on little) about Iran, but this author really helped me understand its geography – especially in a strategic sense – much better than I had previously. I can now understand exactly why Iraq had such a hard time invading during their bloody conflict. The section on Saudi looks very much at its economic future as the US in particular slowly removes its reliance on Mid-East oil and its involvement in Mid-East politics. Although this is a good idea in and of itself (for a whole host of reasons) it doesn’t follow that the tensions in that area will diminish greatly never mind vanish overnight. There are certainly enough other ethnic and religious divisions in the region – to say nothing of Israel’s actions – to keep it in the news for decades to come. 

I’ve been aware of the ‘issues’ between Turkey and Greece for a while now, both from my reading about the region and from watching various conflicts (notably Cyprus) play out on my TV. So, it was a real eye-opener to understand exactly why these two countries – NATO allies indeed – are potentially at each other's throats so much. Not only do they have a LONG history of conflict to draw on, but there’s a whole new cause in play right now: the resources of the eastern Mediterranean. How this will play out... is definitely an open question. 

I’d be the first to admit that my knowledge of Africa is practically non-existent. Apart from some knowledge of Ancient Egypt, the North African campaigns of WW2 and a passing knowledge of the Boer War in South Africa I know almost nothing of that great continent. So, it was good to see two sections in this book dedicated to diminishing that oversight. Looking at conditions throughout the Sahel and Ethiopia I now have a much greater appreciation of the area's problems (often caused by those pesky straight borders again) and what they (and, typically, the Chinese) are doing about it. MUCH more on Africa to come! 

Overall, I enjoyed this a great deal and learnt MUCH. This is a valuable addition to his previous work, and I can definitely recommend it to anyone (like me) who is trying to understand why the world is the way it is. More to come.  

Just Finished Reading: Prisoners of Geography – Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall (FP: 2015/2019) [300pp] 

I’m sure that I’m not alone in wondering what exactly is going on with the world right now. It seems, at least if you watch the news or spend any time on-line (and especially if you spend any time swimming in the increasingly toxic depths of ‘Social Media’) that things are definitely ‘off’ to say the least. I’d even go so far as to say that it seems, on a good day, that a significant percentage of the humans on this planet have gone (or maybe just have gone public about being) crazy. So, what’s up? I thought reading up on Geopolitics might help – and it did! 

Personally, I’m one of ‘those people’ who just enjoy looking at maps, hunting out strange place names, and wondering what a place is actually like. Studying Geography at school (MANY years ago) I was completely intrigued by the idea that you could understand much about a place by looking at things like navigable rivers (or otherwise), locations and heights of mountains, placement of natural resources, the type of border (natural of the ominous straight-line) and so on. Looking closely the location of major cities, battles, migration paths, agricultural land and much more become ‘obvious’ once you take the physical geography into account. Things like cities are not scattered randomly on a landscape. They exist where they do for practical reasons. So, you can tell, almost at a glance, why some countries are prosperous and others poor. You can see why some countries are often invaded by their neighbours and others seems ‘designed’ for defence. 

Looking across the world, from Russia to the Artic, the author takes 10 locations and shows how their geography shaped their individual histories and how their geography shapes both their present and their futures. But as biology is not destiny neither is geography. A mountain range or a river will often constrain options for any country, but we are rather inventive beings who can literally move mountains, or at least blast holes through them. We can also redirect rivers, build bridges over them, or dam them – sometimes annoying or frightening the governments of countries downstream which could, under the wrong circumstances lead to conflict. 

I did think throughout this very interesting book that there was more than a slight hint of Jared Diamond (not that such is a bad thing), with nods to the direction of river flow and, more importantly, their navigability which gave Europe a head start in development (along with abundant natural resources in the shape of coal. Other zones, notably South America and Africa struggled in this regard coupled with the problems of transporting anything long distances through inhospitable regions (deserts, mountains, jungles etc). The chapter on India/Pakistan was most illuminating especially how India broke apart after the British left and how different ethnic groups ended up where they did – complete (of course) with much suffering and death in the process. I think the chapter I learned most from was that on the Middle East. Despite remembering watching many of the conflicts in that region as well as reading an excellent book on Palestine just recently, I did enjoy discovering much of the background to the wars, displacements and massacres over the decades – caused, in no small part, by the fact that the countries boundaries and indeed the countries themselves are the highly artificial constructs of European Powers after WW1 (I’m looking at YOU Britain and France). We REALLY screwed that region LONG before the present messes play out on our TVs and phones. It’s pretty much a given that wherever you see a straight line on a map you KNOW there’s trouble there!  

As my first dip into Geopolitics for a while I was both impressed and educated by this understandably bestselling book. If, like me, you wonder why conflicts start and persist over time, often in the same place's generation after generation, or have wondered why some countries are rich why others remain poor (often despite being resource rich) this is definitely a source for some answers. Definitely recommended and more to come both on the subject and from the author.  

Just Finished Reading: For All the Tea in China – Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World’s Favourite Drink by Sarah Rose (FP: 2009) [275pp] 

In all my years of drinking the stuff (as I am right now) I’ve never really thought about where tea comes from or how it became THE drink of the English and much of the rest of the world. I knew of its association with China and, especially, India but had assumed that it simply grew in different areas – like other plants – and that was it. I had no idea that it was actively STOLEN from China in order to break China’s monopoly on the trade and, not incidentally, make the East India Company a great deal of money. At the centre of things was botanist Robert Fortune who was tasked to gain access to China’s interior (at that time out of bounds to Europeans), accumulate tea plants and seeds, discover the secrets of making tea – from plant to pot – and make it out alive to tell the tale. Needless to say, the attempt was not without considerable risk as China was largely terra incognita before its borders were forcibly opened, but the potential profit was likewise considerable. Nothing like it had been attempted before. It was going to be quite the adventure! 

Tea is so ubiquitous that its almost invisible here. A ‘cup of tea’ is, as often parodied (with a lot of truth) as the ‘answer to everything’. That’s not far wrong. I’m not exactly sure at what age I started drinking it (5 maybe?) but growing up it was a regular ritual throughout the day. I think we drank it at least 3 or 4 times (maybe more) each day at home. But, until very recently, I never even thought to ask what TYPE of tea it was – mostly ‘blended’ standard tea (AKA the cheap stuff) - or where it came from. On going to university in the early 80’s I ‘fell in with’ a group of HEAVY tea drinkers – probably 6-10 cups a day or more! – which was cool. Tea kept us up, focused and fun to be with. I’m sure that it helped with our studies too. 

After Uni and my move to London, I kept up the tea habit for a while, but it slowly seemed more of a drag making it for myself and I slowly lost the habit. Only after a break of years – if not decades – I started drinking it again (presently green tea with lemon & honey) and found that I really missed it. My daily cuppa – just the one – is something I look forward to with some anticipation. After reading this book I’ve decided to expand my range into other teas (I picked up a box of Assam today) and intend to try out as many as I can find. I think it’ll be fun experimenting with ‘real’ tea rather than the standard blends I’ve been used to my whole life. It might take me a while to move away from teabags though – but I DO have an unused pot that could be dusted off... and I’ve seen some really nice/cute diffusers...  

If you have any interest or curiosity about the world's favourite drink this will definitely fill in the gaps in your knowledge. A fascinating read of global industrial espionage that got me wondering about other food and drink we’ve stolen and transplanted around the world. More to come. Recommended. 

Just Finished Reading: Nomads – The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World by Anthony Sattin (FP: 2022) [310pp] 

Go back far enough in our collective human history and we were all nomads. The few of us who existed in that long gone pre-historic age wandered the Earth hunting, fishing and generally getting on with our lives. Gradually, for a number of reasons, a few and then a few more, moved less or less often then, gradually ceased moving around and settled. From that point on the tension between the mobile and the settled has only grown. Of course, as we know, history is written by the victors but in this case there’s an added twist. Nomads, as a rule, leave behind no monuments, few artifacts and even few documents. By their very nature they travel light and have a light impact on the world. The settled, by contrast, have the ability, the numbers and often the wealth to build monuments that outlast their civilisations, leave behind a plethora of objects wherever they live and leave behind contracts, bills of sale and letters to loved ones. It's not surprising therefore that our nomadic ancestors and more their modern descendants have received a poor press when they received the attention a press at all. The author of this intriguing book does what he can (and does it well) to address that issue. 

The problem, as alluded to already, is that much of what we know about ancient, and more recent, nomadic tribes comes from the settled who had direct or indirect contact with them. As you might imagine much of the ‘press’ has been negative – sometimes with good reason but often without. Nomad all too often is synonymous with barbarian – those that lack sophistication or the trappings of civilisation. Unsurprisingly they are looked down upon, exploited, harassed and feared. Yet, throughout our long history, they have produced some awesome artifacts and have ruled over vast lands, empires and trade routes that shaped our entire planets history. Ignoring or sidelining nomadic people is telling only half the story of mankind at best. Despite the fact that the settled ‘civilised’ have triumphed over the nomadic doesn’t mean that they have contributed little (or nothing) of note nor that they can be ‘disappeared’ from the history books without doing real damage to our knowledge or understanding of humanity. 

This was definitely an interesting read, looking as it does from the ‘other side’ of history and focusing on those who move rather than exclusively on those who stand still (geographically speaking). The interaction of the nomad and the city-dweller is an important one and I think this book makes a creditable contribution to understanding that process. I certainly learnt a lot and by the end could more appreciate the value of those who chose to remain with their herds and their horses whilst others moved inside walls. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in a very different way of life. 

Just Finished Reading: The Pandemic Century – A History of Global Contagion from the Spanish Flu to Covid-19 by Mark Honigsbaum (FP: 2019/2020) [293pp] 

Bad as it was, the recent Covid-19 pandemic wasn’t our first rodeo, not by a long way. Indeed Covid-19 arrived almost on time to recreate the (almost forgotten at the time) 1918 Spanish Flu which, depending on which guesstimate you go with was responsible for more deaths than the World War it followed, more than WW2 or even (at the top of the estimates) more than both combined – making it the deadliest disease outbreak in human history. With that as a basis this fascinating work moves onto the Los Angeles plague (yup, THE plague) in the 1920’s, Parrot fever in the 1930’s, Legionnaires Disease in the 1970’s, HIV/AIDS in the 1980’s, SARS in the 1990’s, Ebola in the 2010’s as well as Zika in that same decade. Only the final chapter, briefly, looks at Covid-19 as no doubt the hardback was published just as the pandemic hit and the paperback version (which I read) had to be updated with the latest information to play catch-up. 

One of the things I found most interesting, apart from putting Covid in historical context, was to see from 1918 to the present, many of the social and political effects and attitudes repeat themselves including misinformation, disinformation, ignorance, resistance, quackery, exploitation, political point scoring, as well as governments and the medical establishment struggling to keep up with events and, all too often, fighting amongst themselves whilst in the spotlight (and being widely reported in the press for doing so). Nothing, it seems, is new under the sun. 

The Spanish Flu (so-called because Spain didn’t have newspaper censorship at the time unlike the rest of the West including the US so as not to give information to the Central Powers that they could use against them) was particularly interesting, especially because they had NO idea what they were fighting. The very existence of viruses was only confirmed only a decade or more later so medical experts argued over even the reality of the disease itself. The different responses to the disease, indeed ALL of the pandemics discussed here, was very instructive. Some countries did little or nothing to stop the spread – in some cases simply because they COULD do nothing. Other countries responded with draconian measures – often misplaced or directed at despised minorities – with limited effect. Some places, very few it turned out, missed the pandemic completely by a strict policy of isolation/quarantine. 

Overall, this was an interesting and informative read. While mostly looking at things from a heavily American perspective it did manage to delve into African, South American and Chinese experiences too. The historical lens was, I thought, its most useful aspect though I did appreciate the details especially surrounding the initial reported Legionnaires Disease outbreak and the epidemiological detective work that took place searching for its origin. Definitely recommended to anyone interested in global health issues or those who want to put Covid-19 into context. More Pandemics to come – and books about them as well...    

Just Finished Reading: Persians – The Age of the Great Kings by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (FP: 2022) [397pp] 

Up until comparatively recently, our knowledge of the Persian world and especially the Greek-Persian War had been almost exclusively from the Greek side. Unsurprisingly, those who write the histories tend to portray themselves in the best of lights and their enemies – well all too often they are seen as decadent aggressive barbarians unworthy of the name civilised. Our views changed with the discovery of thousands of clay tablets which, in the preceding years, have been painstakingly translated and compiled into a history of the region and the Persian empire in their own words. Needless to say, this is VERY different from the Greek accounts so well known in the West. 

Starting in what is now Iran, the Achaemenids eventually founded an empire spanning the whole region and claimed parts of what is now northern Greece and north Africa including most of Egypt. They were mighty and a force to be reckoned with for centuries. They built great cities, produced epic iconic art and waged war with an equally epoch-making intensity. They did not suffer their enemies to remain rivals for long, crushing all opposition, burning cities to the ground and enslaving the survivors. They were most certainly NOT to be messed with. This, of course, did not stop the Greek city states on the coast of what is now Turkey from doing so – much to their regret. It also didn’t stop internal rivalry, most especially at times of power transition. The King of Kings, in order to secure the continuity of the Achaemenids made sure to produce enough sons to pick from to be the designated heir. Unfortunately, with SO many sons to choose from – often in the tens if not more – those who were passed over either had to be placated, exiled FAR away from the centres of power or simply executed/assassinated to ensure a ‘peaceful’ transfer of power. It was, to say the least, messy. If that wasn’t bad enough, even before the next King had been designated (or assumed) there was a constant jostling for position and power in the attempt to ensure that the favoured son in fact ended up as the heir-designate. Poison or simple assassination played their parts here. 

If that wasn’t complicated enough – and to be honest getting my head around some of the family trees in this book is a REAL mind twister – the Achaemenids most definitely kept it in the family in order to maintain a ‘pure’ bloodline. This involved Kings marrying their cousins, sisters, daughters and whoever was ‘best suited’ to maintain the dynasty. My particular ‘favourite’ example was a King (I can’t remember which one as they often had the same names) who married his daughter who was, herself, continuing her affair with her brother throughout. They could certainly give the later Egyptian dynasties a run for their money in that department. 

It was nice to start to rectify my DEEP ignorance of this region and period covered in this excellent book. As you’ll have guessed by now, seeing my reading on Ancient Times, I do tend to concentrate on the Greeks and the Romans probably at least partially due to the fact that there’s just SO much out there on them. I have been trying – OK, mostly by accumulating unread books – to move my knowledge Eastwards and this is an early foray towards that. It was a very good start. If, like me, you’ve often wondered what it was like beyond the edges of the Greek and Roman worlds in Ancient Times I recommend that you give this tome a read. You can thank me later. MUCH more to come from this region. 

[Highest page count of the year so far: 397pp][+14pp]

Just Finished Reading: War by Sebastian Junger (FP: 2010) [278pp] 

What is it like to be in combat in a modern war? How do people cope, from all kinds of backgrounds, with the danger and the boredom? What does a year in a war zone do to people and how does it affect them months or even years later? What do frontline soldiers think about the war they’ve volunteered to take part in? These questions, and more both thought about and not, would be answered in the most direct way by the author. The way to find out, possibly the only way to find out, is to be there with them – coping with the same heat, the same cold and the same MRE rations. To be there when the boredom is so bad it becomes dangerous, to be there when the sniper bullets are coming in and everyone knows that RPGs will soon be following. To be there, with the guys, as they run across open ground under fire to help one of their own shouting for help, or to hear them sobbing in their sleep after they see their best friend drop dead beside them from a headshot from who knows where. To be there to ask difficult questions when they’re willing to talk and to laugh along at their bad jokes.   

Over a 15-month deployment in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, the author spent 4 months doing just that. The 2nd Platoon of Battle Company, part of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade were the very tip of the spear and had been deployed on what the author called “sort of the Afghanistan of Afghanistan: too ­remote to conquer, too poor to intimidate, too autonomous to buy off.” Needless to say, it wasn’t the safest place to be for an American soldier or a journalist (and his cameraman) who was covering them. Under fire almost every day in the ‘fighting season’ and randomly at other times – from a single random shot from a hillside to a sustained attack lasting hours – death was always close at hand despite body armour, med packs and helicopter evac. The difference between seeing the next day and getting sent home to your family in a box might be the availability of a close Apache attack helicopter, an A-10  attack aircraft or fire support from a nearby base – and, of course, the guy sleeping in the next bunk. That level of trust and responsibility to the guy next to you builds something in a team of youngsters, something you just don’t get in civilian life where an untied shoe or a forgotten battery recharge doesn’t put both your life and the lives of the team in mortal danger. 

Despite all my previous reading on combat and soldiers, this was still quite an eye-opener. I think it was both the closeness and the rawness of the account that made the difference. This wasn’t just a journalist who flew in, interviewed a few men and an officer for an hour or two and then disappeared. This was a journalist who was ‘in the shit’ with the people he was reporting on and who agonised about his responsibility not to do anything stupid which endangered the others or whether he could pick up a gun to defend them if things got really bad. I was actually impressed that, although he didn’t carry a weapon throughout his multiple visits he was trained to use all of the weapons at the platoon's disposal and even offered to carry ammunition for the heavy weapon team when one of their number was going to be ‘bumped’ to make room for him on the helicopter. Overall, I was very impressed by the author and am looking forward to reading some of his previous work (including ‘The Perfect Wave’) and his follow up to this book on the effects of PTSD. Obviously with a book of this nature there are some nasty moments and a sprinkling of profanity throughout, so be warned. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to understand modern combat or the Afghan War. 

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Just Finished Reading: In the Shadows of the American Century – The Rise and Decline of US Global Power by Alfred W McCoy (FP: 2017) [256pp] 

An interesting way to look at modern US history (post-Civil War) is to see it as an Empire in the mould of the British or ancient Athenian empires – not one simply of conquest and domination but almost accidental (in the sense of not entirely deliberate).  Built through the provocation of wars and interventions from the Spanish-American war to the First and especially Second World Wars, America found itself torn from its preferred isolationist comfort zone and thrust onto the world stage as a player par excellence. It was World War 2 that made the US into a global powerhouse and the ‘arsenal of democracy’ (to say nothing of the world's richest nation by far and – briefly – the world’s only Super-power) but it was the subsequent Cold War that made the United States into an Empire in all but name. With the need to contain and, where required, combat the proxies of the ideological opposing force of Communism wherever they were found across the entire planet's surface (or beyond) the build-up of a truly staggering military force, the construction of numerous military bases around hot spots and the building of alliances for mutual defence developed into an Empire almost by default and, it seemed, almost as an afterthought. But built it was and the post-1945 world was named, without irony, the American Century. 

The previous empire (the world spanning British) that the Americans had now overshadowed had its own century running from 1815 to 1914 – going into slow and then accelerating decline after the exhausting Great War – and it was, at least initially, thought that the pax Americana would both outlast and outshine its predecessor. But the going has been far from easy. The Soviet Union developed nuclear weapons far faster than had been anticipated and the US no longer held the monopoly on world destruction. Other countries followed and the nuclear ‘club’ has been slowly expanding ever since. Although the military might of American forces was certainly not to be trifled with – as seen in Korea – the defeat in Vietnam tarnished their reputation for decades until the lightening victory in the first Gulf War. But, as we know, subsequent conflicts in Afghanistan and Gulf War 2 televised as they were for all the world to see showed beyond doubt the America’s predominance on the field of battle was no longer a given. The American Empire must now co-exist with other rising powers, most especially China, and come to terms with being more of a first amongst equals in a multi-polar world. The question is, naturally, just how long can the US retain its present position. Even with recent setbacks, the Chinese economy is due to overtake the US sooner rather than later. Likewise, the Chinese military strength grows by the day. If those two nations ever came to blows the outcome and the winner is up for debate, and it is far from certain that the US would prevail. We are indeed living through interesting times. 

This was, to be honest, a definite highlight of the year for me. The author most certainly ‘knows his stuff’ and manages to bring together almost a century of geopolitical history into a coherent narrative that is both persuasive and a little frightening. It also throws into perspective, at least for me, the present political turmoil that the US is going through. Looking at it through the lens of an Empire in decline it makes perfect sense. Indeed, its exactly what you might have expected to see as the Roman Empire crumbled long before the barbarians arrived at their gates. A fascinating read and highly recommended for anyone wanting to both understand the history of the US and, just possibly, its future. 

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Just Finished Reading: Heart Beguiling Araby – The English Romance with Arabia by Kathryn Tidrick (FP: 1990) [219pp] 

The British have long been fascinated and focused on the Arab peninsula, long before the oil and long before the area became the political nightmare it is today.  It was, according to this deeply interesting slim volume, however based on a delusion if a persistent one. That delusion resided deep with the psyche of the British imperial imagination – that the desert Arabs and particularly the Bedouin were just like them, not noble savages but noble gentlemen in desert garb. This ideal, apparently highly resistant to the experience reality of travellers in the region, was founded on the works of Richard Burton (1821-1890), Gifford Palgrave (1826-1888), Wilfred Scawen Blunt (1840-1922) and Charles M Doughty (1843-1926) who each in their own way added to the myth. So pervasive was this idea in the higher echelons on British society that it informed and directed British foreign policy in the region as some dreamt of expanding the Empire onto that peninsula to the exclusion of all other powers – most especially the Ottoman Empire. When the Ottoman’s sided with Germany in WW1 this was Britain’s opportunity to make the dream come true. The discovery and steadily increasing requirements for oil certainly helped and some British players, most notably a young officer known to history as Lawrence of Arabia, were all too happy to make an imperial Arabia a reality. 

I have long wondered at the British fascination and romance with the desert. The Foreign Office was indeed infamous (at least until recently) for being confirmed Arabists no doubt until (or likely just after) such a position became increasingly untenable with its suspected whiff of antisemitism. Part of that fascination is the romance of desolate places much loved by British travellers and tourists from the 18th century onwards. Part of it, no doubt, was the supposed romance of wild peoples – and especially wild men – who were seemingly more ‘alive’ than their civilised counterparts in the stuffy drawing rooms of England. Part of it was the understandable rejection, at least of a psychic level, of the modern world and the increasing pace of change (laughable looking back from the 21st century but understandable all the same) and the desire to ‘escape’ back into a more idyllic and simpler time. No doubt part of it was childhood readings of the Arabian Nights and the Bible and the seeming ability to ‘drop into’ the pages of formative books. 

Told with a deep understanding of the time and region and with a great deal of knowing humour (I laughed out loud more than once at the authors comments regarding some of the major players) I derived both a great deal of knowledge and a great deal of pleasure on almost every page. If you’ve ever wondered about early European and especially British encounters with Arabia or, like me, wondered what all the fuss was about in the 19th and early 20th centuries in that region then this is definitely the book for you. Much more on that troubled zone to come. 

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Just Finished Reading: Amazons – The Real Warrior Women of the Ancient World by John Man (FP: 2017) [273pp] 

Just like the Ancient Greeks, I have long been fascinated by stories of Amazons. Even today women in combat roles can seem odd or even wrong but to the Greeks they seemed positively bizarre. The norm of Greek society at that time was that women stayed at home – they were either daughters or wives. The idea of them riding horseback in armour, complete with bow or spear and (incredibly) not only fighting but besting male warriors was somewhere between obscene and deeply alluring. The word ‘Amazon’ was full of negative meaning and was not used in a positive way – quite the opposite. Yet, the Greeks kept coming back to the idea even incorporating Amazons into several of their founding myths.  

We know now of course that the mythical race of Amazons were just that – a myth. But, the author argues, they did have at least some basis in fact. Several tribes in East Asia – most notably the Scythians – did indeed use female warriors on horseback to great effect. Why, after all, relegate up to half of your available force to the kitchen and the hearth when they can ride and use a bow just as well as their male counterparts? Such a practical use of resources was well outside the Greek experience. Archaeological evidence exists in abundance (once unthinking sexist assumptions about the gender of interned skeletons had been challenged) for celebrated female warriors throughout Asia. This idea was so powerful that the myth of the Amazons lasted long after the Greek civilisation that gave it birth had fallen. The land of the Amazons continued to be looked for and continued to remain just over the next mountain range or beyond the next forest. Both the Amazon River and the state of California bare the mark of the Amazon myth. Real-life ‘amazons’ have indeed existed though with examples of massed female troops in Africa, female fighter and bomber squadrons in Soviet Russia during World War 2 (the fabled ‘Night Witches’ amongst them) and the Kurdish female fighters in Syria and elsewhere. 

Probably the most interesting chapter for me – especially as I am no fan of the present Superhero genre – was on Wonder Woman herself (that’s ignoring the short chapter addressing the ‘missing’ breast issue). I knew something of her comic creation but had no idea about the strange life of her creator and how his interests in both feminism and bondage produced the hero we know today. It was all very illuminating and so much about Diana Prince makes total sense now. I’ll be following up that particular thread in a book already on my Wish List – watch this space! 

Overall, this was an interesting and often fascinating read of how a myth (or misunderstanding) became such a powerful idea in Western culture and survived largely intact to the present day. Although it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting – as it wasn’t exclusively concentrated on the Ancient World – this was still a fun and very informative read. If you’ve ever wondered about the Amazons or about Wonder Woman herself, this is definitely the book for you. Recommended and more to come on this intriguing subject. 

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Just Finished Reading: The Viral Storm – The Dawn of the New Pandemic Age by Nathan Wolfe (FP: 2011) [255pp] 

Pandemics are, thankfully, rare events but as we are only too well aware they are not something confined to the past. With all of the media and political attention paid to the Covid-19 global pandemic we have all become much more familiar with historic events such as the ‘Spanish’ flu outbreak towards the end of WW1 as well as previous esoteric epidemiological concepts as the R(0) number – the rate at which infection spreads in a population, which means that pandemics are no longer as mysterious to the general population as they once were. Today, thanks in part to the work of the author of this fascinating short volume, we have a much greater understanding of what viruses are, how they are transmitted both between species and between humans, how they spread so quickly across the globe and, ultimately, where they come from and, by implication, where the next pandemics will emerge. 

Interestingly, it appears that all flu strains originate in birds. This virus then hops across the species barrier to a mammal – often pigs – and then to us. Generally, most viruses die at that point in the human host and go no further. Sometimes, although only rarely, they are either already compatible enough with humans to both make the host sick (or even kill them) and jump to others or they swap genes with an existing flu infection already in the host and produce something more akin to SARS or MERS. Very occasionally things go a step or two further with a world-wide pandemic like Covid-19. Although relatively mild, in the overall grand scheme of things, Covid proved to be highly infectious and spread across the world before we really knew what hit us. But flu isn’t the only pandemic we are either already dealing with or coming at us in the future. The classic example of HIV/AIDS that we are only now getting to grips with jumped the species barrier from ape virus SIV. Somewhat ironically it appears to have begun spreading outside its home reach because of a combination of economic and health improvements in Africa enabling people to more easily travel long distances coupled with misuse of needles in local hospitals. Only in the 1980’s, many decades after it emerged in the human population was it ‘discovered’ in the US. One can only imagine the difference if it had been identified much earlier and stopped in its tracks. 

We are, in some cases at least, creating a perfect storm for future pandemics. We crowd into cities that are ever more dense, more people than ever before move across the globe at subsonic speeds allowing viruses with ever shorter infection to symptom times to make it to other continents before people become visibly sick, we herd our increasingly homogenous food animals into closer and tighter groups allowing any infection to spread through them quickly, we are increasingly destroying natural habitats and encountering new diseases there and the growing ‘diseases of affluence’ increasingly compromises our immune systems and impacts our healthcare systems. It’s quite a toxic brew and it should come as no surprise that people like this author are sounding the alarm bells (well in advance of Covid-19). 

Of course, one of the positive outcomes of Covid is that not only have we had a pretty loud wake-up call but we’ve also put a lot of time and money into producing drugs and vaccines that can cope with, or at the very least mitigate, future outbreaks. Taken together with a global virus surveillance effort this could be the difference between ‘business as usual’ and, well, use your imagination. If you’re in the ‘headspace’ to read about pandemics yet or, like me, never left it, this is an interesting, somewhat reassuring if somewhat sobering read. The bad news is that Covid-19 isn’t going to be our last pandemic. The good news is that we’re not helpless in the face of such things if we take the problem seriously. Definitely recommended. 

Just Finished Reading: Kill Chain – Drones and the Rise of High-Tech Assassins by Andrew Cockburn (FP: 2015) [259pp] 

It has always been the dream of militaries around the world to be able to dispel the ‘fog of war’. This conceptual fog is the inability to see ‘over the hill’, around corners and behind enemy lines at will. To be able to see, god-like, the whole battlefield and know, precisely, where every unit (both friendly and enemy) was exactly located would, in most instances, mean that you could win every battle and dominate every encounter – or at least you could if you could deny such an ability to the enemy. Naturally, with the demand for such omnipotent gaze so high we would expect that companies would offer just such an ability to their military masters – for a cost. 

They tried it in earnest first in Vietnam. The US military at the time couldn’t understand how their low-tech enemies both continued to resist and managed the feats of logistics they evidently were capable of. The culprit was the so-called Ho-Chi-Min Trail. But even with the largest and most powerful air force in the world they couldn’t simply bomb a winding jungle trail 24/7 and hope for the best. They needed accurate and timely intel so they could respond ‘Just In Time’ for most effect. Enter the high-tech sensors designed to pick up human smells, human footfall and the rumble of truck engines. Or so the manufacturers promised. But that was a lot of remote data that needed processing so computers (or a sort) were designed and built to process the data and determine exactly what was going on along the Trail and tell the air force exactly where and when to bomb. Or so the manufacturers promised. Of course, it turned out that the sensors, even when they worked and even when they actually landed anywhere near the Trail, couldn’t differentiate between a Viet-Cong and a local peasant or between a truck and a wild pig. Nor could the computer program supposedly designed to do just that. But the air force had its targeting data, so planes flew and bombs, lots of bombs, fell as did Saigon sometime later. 

Not deterred by failure, the manufacturers of high-tech equipment eventually delivered the iconic ‘drone’ which was, in their minds at least, the all-seeing eye that could provide ‘real-time’ intel and, in later iterations, launch instant precision strikes. The military dream had finally been achieved – they could view any battlefield anywhere on the planet and, with the touch of a button or a word over a phone bring down hell (or at least a Hellfire missile) on a helpless enemy. Or so the manufacturers promised. Unfortunately, things were never that straight forward. For one thing the drones couldn’t really take off or land in strong winds, or actually in light winds. Their light construction meant that they were easily damaged and needed constant maintenance. Their sensors, supposedly god-like, were nothing of the sort and, at the height they usually operated at, couldn’t easily distinguish between types of vehicles or identify people on the ground by age, gender or whether or not they were carrying a weapon. This naturally meant that any strike had a high chance of collateral damage – AKA dead women, children and innocent bystanders. Also naturally, the military LOVED their new toys and demanded more of them with longer ranges, higher payloads and longer loiter times. All of which the manufacturers promised to provide – at ever increasing costs.  

I’ve never been a fan of drones and the more I read about them the less I like them. Not only are they a very questionable weapon system for a whole host of reasons they have been used, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen, as essentially tools of targeted assassination which isn’t, as far as I’m aware, what they were originally designed for. The ethical problems with this approach are huge and the result are, as we are now only too aware, questionable at best. If you ever wondered how we arrived at this situation this is most definitely a book for you. Told with an apparent deep, often inside, knowledge of the equipment, the companies that make them and the organisations that buy them this is a totally fascinating (if at times almost blood-boiling) of why ‘drone strike’ and ‘hellfire missile’ have become common terms in the media and beyond. Drones are definitely here to stay (as we’re presently seeing in Ukraine) and as their advertised abilities grow so will their usage around the world. Watch the Skies and pray for cloud. Recommended.  

Just Finished Reading: The Big Lie – The Inside Story of Psychological Warfare by John Baker White (FP: 1955) [240pp] 

Firstly, this isn’t about what you might think at first glance – if you noticed the sub-title and the publication date! This is actually about the modern invention and growth of what was initially called Political Warfare during World War 2. The name was changed after 1941 to Psychological Warfare to bring it in line with the American view of things and, presumably, to stop any confusion between the Allies. 

The author was part of a team of journalists and others in various media who were initially tasked to use their skills to confuse the Axis Powers about British capabilities (Fun Fact – the British pretty much didn’t have any capabilities around the time of the Dunkirk evacuation). It was their job to convince, or at least make the enemy ponder, regarding the ability of Britain to resist any possible invasion. The ‘Lie’ put around was that the Brits had the capability of setting the sea on fire thereby making any amphibious landing ‘tricky’ at best. Years later the author leant that the Germans believed the ruse and it was one factor (amongst many) that was used to postpone Operation Sealion indefinitely. The other two ‘Big Lies’ were even more important – first to persuade the Axis Powers that, after clearing North Africa, the next blow would fall on Greece and not, as everyone expected, Sicily. Any ‘invasion’ of Sicily was to be viewed as a diversion rather than the main attack. The biggest lie of all was also probably the most important PsyOp of all time – convincing Hitler that the long-anticipated invasion of Europe would NOT happen in the obvious place: Normandy. Instead, the attack would take place at the Pas-de-Calais despite the German general’s (correct) assurance that a landing there was untenable. 

But rather than the headline grabbing BIG Lies (of which more later) I was more interested in the little stuff and the fieldcraft required to bring it off successfully. I liked the idea that British PsyOp agents would be ‘indiscrete’ in all the wrong places to spread false rumours as well as wear fake badges on their uniforms to confuse observers about what units were based where. One of the most interesting aspects of the whole thing (for me) was the use of the BBC to broadcast into Occupied Europe (of which more later). Not only did they broadcast propaganda and messages to the various Underground organisations [including the fascinating story of how the V for Victory symbol became the familiar drumbeat equated with the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony played before every BBC broadcast] but they also included accurate Axis casualty and prisoner reports (to ensure that the Axis military were listening) as well as a rather clever use of bomb damage assessment photographs. Whenever a German city was bombed the photographs were combed for proof of damaged or destroyed landmarks, theatres, restaurants and local pubs. This the BBC broadcast to lower the morale of soldiers from those towns and, as a side effect, sent German counter intelligence units mad looking for local spies! 

I’ve had the slim hardback on my shelves for decades but only picked it up to read recently when I decided to go through my older units looking for anything I might have missed. I’m really glad I finally got around to reading it. It certainly gave a ground-floor insight into a much-overlooked aspect of WW2. Recommended if you can source a copy.    

Just Finished Reading: A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby (FP: 1958) [279pp] 

It was more than a whim, although not much more. Having decided that after 10 years the clothing industry was not for him the recently published author decided that he needed adventure, travel and the basis of a new travel book. He cabled his friend Hugh Carless at the British Embassy in Rio “Can You Travel Nuristan June?” to which he received a cool three-word reply “Of Course, Hugh”. It was the beginning of a plan, although maybe ‘plan’ was a slight exaggeration. 

Although Hugh had some experience of the area, and helpfully spoke Persian, the author had almost none. Worse still, part of the trip would involve climbing in some of the least hospitable parts of Afghanistan. With scant weeks to purchase equipment and little knowledge or experience to go on (to say nothing of the contrary advice received from all quarters) Eric did his best as he waited for Hugh to arrive in England. The timing was delicate. Not only did the pair need to take into account the expected weather at their final destination but Hugh was on a short break between diplomatic postings and had already agreed a start date at his new post. With time growing short they travelled to Wales to learn the basic rudiments of mountain climbing. Only days later they were packing for the drive across Europe accompanied by Eric’s wife who would fly back to Italy to pick up the children after they reached Tehran. 

Once they arrived in Afghanistan the fun (somewhat of an exaggeration there!) really started. Initially stymied by local officials they finally met up with their porters and guide who would take them deep ‘in country’ to Nuristan – an area that few Europeans had ever been to (at least in the 1950’s). Carrying a limited amount of (at least from my position) frighteningly primitive equipment they trekked for days across a scenic wilderness to attempt a climb of a mountain that Hugh had failed to reach on his previous visit years before. Already suffering from dysentery, they both tried their best and, in their naivety, took far too many risks in the process – to be honest my heart was in my mouth more than once as they tried to traverse a mountain without any real idea just how dangerous it was and how unprepared they were!  

I’ve been looking at some travel books for a few years now (probably brought on by a hint of the cabin-fever of the first lockdowns!) and have finally managed to read one of them. This has been hailed as a classic of its type and has been voted into the Top 20 of the 100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time. I’m not sure if I’d go quite that far but it was fun watching two young travelers clearly out of their depth (and luckily for them not knowing it) have an adventure of a lifetime. For a (largely) stay-at-home like me this was a fun read both for its travel elements and its peek into British/Western attitudes of the day as well as a look at 50’s Afghanistan before Russian and later Western forces chewed the country up. Definitely recommended for all armchair travelers.