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Showing posts with label Simon Smyth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simon Smyth. Show all posts
Simon Smyth ðŸŽ¥ 41 years ago today as I write this, the Sabra and Shatila massacre of men, women and children started in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.


It lasted 3 days. I have watched this Israeli made film 4 or 5 times before. A powerful anti-war film bordering on traumatic.

Lebanese President Bashir Gemayel was killed sparking a massacre of thousands of Palestinian refugees by his Christian Phalangist followers. The Israelis wanted him to rule the fractured country so they were angry too.

A phone call is made to the Israeli Defence Minister Arik Sharon to warn him of the massacre, "Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Happy New Year," Sharon said before going back to sleep.

It is an animation style film. The film tells the story of a film maker (the director himself) speaking to a number of his old friends from the Israeli army. He is trying to piece together what happened during the War in Lebanon as he has no memory of it. This docudrama feels palpably real and is as close to his truth as we will get. The interviews, stories and the speakers themselves are real except for two participants whose appearance and voices are disguised.

I would recommend this film despite it being a heavy watch as I believe it is valuable education wise and is an excellent story. Despite or because of the horror there is much to be learned. Stories like this should spur efforts to halt the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and elsewhere.

I note how the film made two direct comparisons with Nazis and the Warsaw Ghetto. I would never make these comparisons myself, believing the ethnic cleansing of Palestine can stand on its own. The genocide of the Second World War and that of the Armenians in Turkey or the Belgian Congo are all different. I note it purely because the comparisons in this 2008 film would be censored or shouted down today.

Despite watching this film before and being fully aware that live footage was coming at the end, I was unprepared and couldn't stop crying.

There are many good films about the Palestinian plight and this one deserves our attention particularly if you shy away from an Israeli soldier's perspective.

⏩ Simon Smyth is an avid reader and collector of books.

Waltz With Bashir

Simon Smyth ðŸ”– reviews a classic from the corpus of Irish Republican literature.


The book follows the author's imprisonment during the Irish Civil War. It starts with Peadar O'Donnell's mind going dark, his sensation of being buried and the panic of imprisonment. "I had never felt so unutterably alone."

The downsides to this book are more than compensated by its upsides. It is a very good book but I plodded through it because of its antiquated style rather than its content. I found it disjointed with a hazy chronology. The narrative was difficult to follow at times, moving from one event to another.

It is much closer in writing style to the Victorian era's Glimpses Of An Irish Felon's Life by Thomas Clarke than to the more modern style of Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy, more so than the time differences would suggest.

It holds a wealth of wisdom on Republican resistance. From forming warm relationships with jailers to creating opportunities for escape and otherwise; tunnelling or other strategies for escape; burning the prison; hunger strikes; smuggling; sending comms; building relationships; the interaction with the prison doctors; training, classes and education; being brutalised etc. It is easy to imagine this book as an instruction manual for Long Kesh during the recent conflict. Many of the techniques employed have a longer provenance. However, in the days of Thomas Clarke you were forbidden to read and couldn't even speak to other prisoners and only in exceptional circumstances to the screws and only with their permission.

You can see his antiquated style in the account of his ambivalence towards the idea of a figurehead for Republicanism. The grammar is even antiquated and that caused a little discomfort:

What a pity Mellows was dead: had there been such as he to assemble round there was a team of us left yet ... If there was not (... a Connolly left in Dublin ...) weren't there hundreds of us left in the jails, and shouldn't we make a collective genius to gather this stubborn resistance? The big thing to emphasise is that the stubborn splendour of the big mass of the people must be involved in the tactics of the Revolution: this heresy of the cult of armed men that brought Collins to Imperialism and us to defeat must be overcome.

In Bobby Sands' diaries he speaks of his admiration for a piece by Rudyard Kipling, a player in colonialism and in this book O'Donnell speaks of his love of books particularly P.G. Wodehouse:

The book was great. It was Damsel in Distress by Wodehouse: Look here, that man is wonderful. This was the first book that I had got since coming to Finner except for the Shakespearean interlude. I read it in gulps, took it again in sips, raced through it, dallied over it: I could say whole pages of it yet. I always raise my hand in salute to Wodehouse every time I see his name in a bookshop window.

He endured significant hardships, lack of clothing, food, bullied mercilessly but he mustered significant courage and resources to tackle anything that came his way. The 80 odd reprisal executions carried out by the new Irish Free State were in full swing. For a considerable period and for good reason Peadar O'Donnell thought he was next. The novelist and gun smuggler Erskine Childers was one of the first to die but the Free State soon went about executing prisoners with relish.

His depiction of living day to day, under threat of execution, demonstrates part of the barbarity of living with a death sentence, particularly being unaware of the date or the intention of your captors. Without a firm date and with the constant uncertainty it amounts to inhumane or degrading treatment. How can you plan your next day or week when your life could be extinguished at any time?

His description of the maltreatment of the "Free State Tommies" by the military police in Arbour Hill shows how a war can desensitise a person and allow them to bully and maim even their own.

Then the ceasefire came:

And then one morning my courier came in excitedly and flung me a piece of the Irish Independent of the day before. The ceasefire order had been given to the Legion of the Rearguard - the remnant of the I.R.A. still in the field. The war was over; all executions were off. He was on his hunkers before me as I read, and when I looked up he had his hat off, and his face was shining.
 
Very funny at times, a quirky dark humour, wry at times. His deployment of satire entertains. At other times, most prominently during his metaphysical musings of the working of the mind when the body is enduring a hunger strike, the writing can be profound, it holds great truths.

Going blind from hunger and sensing the unrelenting approach of death must be frightening. George Plunkett and Ernie O'Malley suffered greatly from hunger strike. Lying in bed during the strike and chuckling over a cookery book they showed more courage, self-deprecating humour and self-control than the jibes and insults thrown at such people from those curs who are lacking such attributes, although they often get their mocking material from the same source - food.

After a few deaths, the strike was called off: "You have missed one of life's great moments if you haven't tasted a brandy egg-flip after a forty-one days' fast."

Although the narrative focuses mainly on O'Donnell and his thoughts, a veritable Who's Who of contemporaneous Republicans are dotted throughout: Austin Stack, Ernie O'Malley, Liam Mellows, Dick Barrett, Rory O'Connor etc.

It is short: not a light read nor a chore, it just doesn't flow easily. I will finish my review with a cliché: a significant figure on the Republican left and an accomplished writer Peadar O'Donnell's prison memoir is important for any student of Irish history.

Peadar O'Donnell, 2013, The Gates Flew Open. Published by Mercier Press. ASIN: B07QS4JDHH.

⏩ Simon Smyth is an avid reader and collector of books.

The Gates Flew Open

Simon Smyth ✒ went to a matinee performance of Martin Lynch and Richard O'Rawe's play In the Name of the Son. The play follows the life of Gerry Conlon of the Guildford Four after his release from prison.

Image: culturecrushniblog

I was running late for the play and ordered a taxi which is something I normally don't do as I don't drive and walk everywhere if I can. The taxi driver told me he lived with Gerry Conlon's brother in England. He went to England at the age of 16. He went straight to the Christian Brothers in London and asked them where all the Irish people were as he was looking for work. The Brothers sent him to a particular street corner and told him to wear a couple of jumpers to look 'bigger' for the purpose of gaining work on the building sites. A man who turned out to be Gerry Conlon's brother heard his Belfast accent and took him on. They discovered that they were practically neighbours in West Belfast. They became friends and the taxi driver stayed at digs with him for years. I stupidly asked the taxi driver if he was in England before or after Gerry's arrest and he said after which in hindsight was obvious as he wasn't what you would call old.

The Lyric is a fine venue and you would be at a loss to find a bad seat.

The play began in darkness with the actor playing Gerry Conlon writhing and contorting energetically on a bed, as if from his reaction to a savage nightmare.

The story, of which I knew very little, follows Gerry as he gets released from prison after a devastating miscarriage of justice and then through the peaks and troughs of his chaotic life after his release.

It is difficult to guess at how Gerry Conlon would've lived if he wasn't arrested and framed as a bomb-maker and now is not the place to speculate but, despite his small time criminal past, I suspect he would've thrived. This is one message I received from the play - the unadulterated unfairness of it all. I guess otherwise it would have been a Fair Trial and not a Show Trial.

I don't want to go into the details of the story as one of the most valuable merits of the play is its expert story telling.

Another merit of the play was the unquenchable vigour with which the actor goes through his paces. The actor's boundless energy was unfettered to the point of being psychotic. I mean this as a complement as it was such a fine performance of mimicry that I forgot completely that this wasn't Gerry Conlon in front of me and was absorbed into the world of victimhood, broken and firm relationships, poverty and emotion.

It was a hellish emotional rollercoaster which hammered home the fact that despite his release the ill effects of confinement dictated the path Gerry was to take through life: heartache, guilt about his father Giuseppe, bad luck and addiction.

It was funny in equal measure to its horror which is a trick undoubtedly difficult to pull off but no problem for the playwrights or the perfectly cast actor. The audience was on the verge of tears at times and was there was an abundance of laughing throughout. There was even a quirky reference to The Pensive Quill.

I was fighting back tears on a couple of particular scenes. One of my friends was an ex-prisoner and he said it brought back a lot of familiar memories.

Although much of the play took place after his release the set was a simple prison cell, an obvious metaphor that stated that Gerry Conlon was never actually free from injustice or his past.

The actor was a fine mimic as mentioned above and he adroitly played characters as diverse as Gerry Conlon's mum, girlfriend, father, film director Jim Sheridan, various Hollywood actors, musicians like Bruce Springsteen, actor Daniel Day-Lewis who famously played Gerry in the film In the Name of the Father and yes, you guessed it, everybody else as it was a one-man play. It was an astounding performance and a fascinating insight into the life of one of our famous sons. It wasn't a pleasant story but the play was entertaining and informative in equal measure.

In the modern age you expect at least one mobile phone to go off at a play and one did, right at the point the actor was explaining how he lost everything in a house fire, "but at least the mobile phone still worked" he quipped. He got a well deserved round of applause for that.

A superb play. I suspect it will be touring. Go and see it. I promise you will not be disappointed.

⏩ Simon Smyth is an avid reader and collector of books.

In The Name Of The Son

Simon Smyth ✒ has finished reading a book on the life of a republican activist he much admires. 
 

I have to hold my hands up, in the interests of honesty, I tend to read books I believe I will like, so I come at this review from a certain position. Even if it doesn't persuade you to read the book (I hope it does) the review might add a little information on Skinnider, who is one of my favourite Republicans.

Skinnider had a strong background in militant suffragette, socialist and Irish Nationalist organisations in Scotland and Ireland. In 1915 Margaret Skinnider visited the poorest area of Dublin and witnessed four families living in each room, one in each corner. When she was invited by Countess Markievicz to Dublin she travelled from Scotland with detonators and bomb wires concealed on her person. McAuliffe's description of this Dublin trip evokes a sense of idealism, extreme poverty and a bunch of like-minded people which are all ingredients less-commonly seen today.

A key yet understated figure in Irish history, Skinnider's C.V. is astonishing: a dedicated Camogie player and Gaeilgeoir; expert shot with the rifle; military instructor to the Fianna; member of the Irish Volunteers; fought with Irish Citizens Army under the command of Michael Mallin and Countess Markieviecz in the Easter Rising of 1916; colleague of Liam Mellows; in charge of Cumann na mBan operations in Dublin during the attack on the Four Courts; member of the guard of honour at Cathal Brugha's funeral; paymaster General of Anti-Treaty IRA; military instructor; sea and land smuggler of weapons and explosives; decades' long keeper of safe-houses, school teacher and head of the Irish National Teachers Organisation. They always say a wide-ranging C.V. will impress!

McAuliffe expertly places Skinnider's and other individuals' lives in the context of much more well-known moments in history, for example the Great Hunger, the Land League, Home Rule campaign, the formation of the U.V.F. etc.

Margaret Skinnider was a leading propagandist in the USA after the Rising, along with Nora Connolly O'Brien, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, and other leading figures. It was this propaganda by Republican women, McAuliffe explains, that changed the views of Irish America forever.

Both pro- and anti-treaty Republicans suffered in the weak economy but because of the fascist misogynistic laws which (going against the letter of the Proclamation) were ushered in by the new state in league with the Catholic Church; women were treated abysmally, particularly those who, like Skinnider, were anti-treaty. Cumann na mBan as an organisation was anti-treaty. They and others who were anti-treaty were denied pensions.

The book quotes W.D. Cosgrove's statement that "the word "persons" refers to males" regarding pensions. This was state policy and illustrative of the virulent hatred of Republican women. McAuliffe deftly breaks down the nuance of the pension policy with the example of the only woman who got a pension, it was down to her being a Free-State army doctor between 1922-1924. Skinnider was unsurprisingly denied a pension - being anti-treaty was more of an unworthy attribute than being a woman. Now that is saying something considering how much women were despised in the new state.

Likewise, in 1932 there was a ban on married women becoming teachers or working in the Civil Service. This enraged Margaret Skinnider - equality and emancipation of women went to the heart of the Proclamation. The author, referring to Skinnider, notes this ban would have "enraged her feminist sensibilities." Skinnider lived for most of her life with a same sex partner, Nóra O'Keefe so the ban on married women would not have affected her directly but fighting for people's rights regardless of whether you are impacted directly is what human rights and a rights based Republicanism is all about. She was also passionate about pupils with intellectual or physical impairments getting an equal opportunity to others.

This book reinforces the message that we should proactively encourage women of whatever political stance to take part in politics. If you can't find it in your heart to encourage them, at least don't troll, stalk or harass them. We need to give ourselves the best opportunities for a successful society. A male dominated capitalist society hasn't worked.

This bite-sized book at 115 pages is an easy and comfortable read, part of the Historical Association of Ireland's Life and Times New Series aimed at students, with a sparsity of academic jargon. However, things as specific as Cumann na mBan convention minutes are discussed by the author. With this as with everything it is the detail that delights and fascinates. Full of interesting stories, deftly interwoven and described by the author Mary McAuliffe, it didn't disappoint. It has a useful notes section and bibliography along with a handy chronology of the subject's life. I would encourage people to read this book on the multi-faceted life of Margaret Skinnider.

Mary McAuliffe, 2020, Margaret Skinnider. Publisher:‎ University College Dublin Press. ISBN-13: 978-1910820537

⏩ Simon Smyth is an avid reader and collector of books

Margaret Skinnider

Simon Smyth 🔖 The primary reason I read  King Leopold's Ghost was due to Anthony McIntyre's recommendation, here on his blog The Pensive Quill. He spoke so enthusiastically about it I knew I would read it one day.


King Leopold’s Ghost is written by Adam Hochschild, an American journalist, who teaches writing at the Graduate School of Journalism, at University of California at Berkeley. The author uses an astonishing wealth of contemporary sources and aims this book at the layperson. I found the blurb on the front cover by Robert Harris "All the tension and drama that one would expect in a good novel" a little grotesque. I understand it is out of context and designed to sell books but the blurb smacked of insensitivity considering the subject matter and seemed to appeal to titillation.

The book begins by setting the scene in Africa. The trans-Atlantic slave trade is discussed through to the main story of King Leopold II's personal colony and a discussion afterwards on other colonies and modern day power struggles which have nothing to do with protecting people but have everything to do with protecting Western interests which are primarily having unfettered access to raw materials and resources.

The story in King Leopold's Ghost is told thorough the interwoven stories of the main players. These include King Leopold II, Henry Morton Stanley (the explorer of "Dr Livingstone I presume" fame), lobbyists like Henry Shelton Sanford, George Washington Williams (lawyer, journalist, historian), Joseph Conrad (who captured the era in his novel Heart of Darkness), E.D. Morel (unlikely arch-nemesis of King Leopold II), Sir Roger Casement (human rights campaigner, Irish Republican, friend of Conrad and Morel), Hezekiah Shanu (awarded medal by the brutal regime) and Rev. William H Sheppard (Presbyterian missionary and explorer).

Those individuals' stories are adroitly woven together to depict a surprisingly clear, precise and easily read picture of barbarity, cruelty, inhumanity and genocide. The reader is never left wondering about unfinished themes which is a great strength in any book but a relief in a book as all-encompassing as this.

The depiction of heroes like Morel or the evangelical missionaries is skillfully done and by judging the standard of Hochschild's general work here you are left in no doubt why his job is teaching people how to write in such a prestigious university. I particularly like the way the book paints Casement, his slight character flaws only accentuating his wealth of personality, humanity, intelligence and appeal.

One individual said of Casement:

Figure and face, he seemed to me one of the finest-looking creatures I had ever seen; and his countenance had charm and distinction and a high chivalry. Knight errant he was.


In 1890 Joseph Conrad wrote in his diary:


Made the acquaintance of Mr Roger Casement, which I should consider as a great pleasure under any circumstances ...Thinks, speaks well, most intelligent and very sympathetic.

A colleague wrote how Casement's "greatest charm was his voice, which was very musical." Another said "Casement doesn't talk to you. He purrs at you".

Morel's and Casement's approach to human rights work is still the 'facts and witness statement' approach we see today in that movement. The interplay between the heroes makes you like each of them even more.

King Leopold II's wealth came from slavery which exploited the Congo's resources (including ivory and then the highly profitable rubber which was tapped from lianas). The sparsity of African voices in the book is a flaw admitted by the author but unavoidable due to their lack of a contemporary voice.

Other colonies witnessed brutality at the same level but Leopold personally owned and ran the Congo for his own individual greed.

The propaganda effort of the Belgian king with its lies, censorship and spin to hide the real intent and events from public view mirrors the propaganda efforts in today's society. The exploitation of people and resources is a reminder that colonialism through Western economic interests, puppet dictators and modern-day slavery still carries on today.

The people in many developing countries gathering the super precious metals for hi-tech equipment, including the device with which I write this do not have the luxury of Western employment law or the standards of living we enjoy in the developed world. The arguments today that some form of employment is better than none, for those exploited peoples, echo those of King Leopold II over 100 years ago.

One example of interference the book gives is the early democratic leader, Prime Minister Lumumba of the free Democratic Republic of the Congo who was assassinated at the hands of the USA and Belgian government in 1961 because it was feared he might act in Africa's interests and not in the West's. The West's insatiable greed for raw materials and minerals sealed his fate and opened the door for Mobutu, the ally and dictator.

We were colonised ourselves but the money which built Dublin and Belfast came in great part from slavery or exploitation of less powerful nations. For example, Bank Buildings in Belfast was built using money from slavery. So was Trinity College, Dublin. Don't forget the Irish who joined the British Army in huge numbers prior to partition although they are few in number today.

This is a difficult book to read not by standard of writing but by its description of barbarism perpetrated by the white colonialists and to a lesser extent their proxies among the African people. Hochschild explains that black natives without power were often chosen by the white people with power to dish out the punishments. Those chosen were often tortured or killed if they didn't comply. This separated the white European physically from the horror of the acts, which in turn were easier to dish out.

The same grasp on one's humanity is lost in times of war as well. Vietnam War veteran and writer Karl Marlantes in A Rumor Of War explains how even the most amiable, caring and peaceable people carry out barbaric atrocities. The depravity you witness in war numbs you, you become more used to barbarity: and your actions, in turn, become more barbaric. This immunity to atrocity coupled with the delegating of punishment in the Congo led to horrors which only a skilled writer like Hochschild can get across.

Referring to those who organised the atrocities the author quotes Primo Levi:

Monsters exist. But they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are...the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.

We see this in practice: those who used whips, fashioned from hippopotamus skin, on men, women and children, those who murdered, tortured, raped, enslaved and cut off hands, ears, and genitals etc.

When the scorched earth policy was employed the bullets were counted and the same number of right hands had to be cut off to prove no bullet was wasted. Often, over a hundred right hands were brought back, (smoked to preserve them in the tropical heat) from a single mission, counted and then thrown in the river. A picture in the book of a man sitting, looking down at the severed hand and foot of his 5 year old daughter will stay with me forever. It was the man's punishment for not collecting enough rubber.

Hochschild explains how, despite the much pushed narrative of how colonialism was to bring democracy, culture and civilisation to foreign lands it actually did the opposite. The post-colonial legacy is the opposite also. Hochschild states that corruption, greed, terror and dictatorship are often the legacy for colonies who won their freedom because that is what they know, they learned it from the colonisers.

I disagree with Hochschild but understand where he is coming from when he says that it wasn’t strictly speaking a genocide, that the deaths were incidental and due to demand for labour. His arguments about the colonisers "not wanting to eliminate one particular ethnic group from the face of the Earth" is a strange one. The elements of what constitutes Genocide is more specific than that. Genocide wasn't a crime in international law until 1946 but the crimes in the Congo certainly match the criteria.

I would recommend this book as a highly readable, fascinating and informative reminder of how people suffered and why we, in the West, enjoy a disproportionate amount of the wealth today. The book is, in this sense, a strong critique on capitalism, Western interference and neo-colonialism.

I will leave you with the words which Casement quoted from an African proverb in reference to his humanitarian campaign in the Congo: 

A man doesn't go among thorns unless a snake is after him - or he's after a snake. I'm after a snake and please God I'll scotch it.


Adam Hochschild, 1999. King Leopold's Ghost. Publisher: Macmillan. ISBN-13: ‎978-0333661260

⏩ Simon Smyth is an avid reader and collector of books

King Leopold's Ghost

Simon Smyth has been delving into the pages of crime fiction.

 

This is the third Richard Price book I have read. The first was Clockers which was made into an excellent film in 1995 by Spike Lee. When I was much younger I was a huge film buff and religiously read all the books which all the best films were based on: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil ➖ The Godfather ➖  Wiseguys ➖ Girl Interrupted ➖ Carlito's Way ➖ Dead Man Walking and more accessible books like Silence of the Lambs. 

I must have read 30-40 books based on great films, even tracking down The Hoods by Harry Gray which was the basis of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America when it had been out of print for years, taking advantage of the nascent internet to feed my desire to read. Once, I forgot the rule of thumb that states whichever comes first, book or movie, is usually the best and read Wyatt Earp which was a novel based on the film and learned a quick, badly written lesson.

I will have to track down the film Clockers, which is about street-level drug dealers in New York, to see if it has dated. However, Spike Lee's handprint of genius is not normally one to fade.

The Whites is a crime novel, not too gritty but gritty enough, about a group of friends who are cops who met at the academy and grew older together, socialising and covering each other's backs. The Whites of the title are each cop's Moby Dick, the nemesis who they each know are guilty but who escaped justice, down to a technicality, sloppy police work or just bad luck.

The book was relatively slow to start and I was surprised to see at the end of every chapter, a section called Milton Ramos which was unrelated to the main story but which I kept suspecting would merge at some stage either directly or indirectly.

I was also surprised to see words like mobile phone, internet, allusions to black lives matter style protests and other contemporary references which although I know are now 20 years old or more, made the noir feel of the book jar with the up-to-date setting. The book was written in 2015.

To avoid any beans being spilled I will end by saying this is an excellent novel, what you imagine would be regarded as literature because of the phrases and sentences which individually are rich and conjure thoughts which are familiar but which you never could articulate. 

Price expertly weaves these well written sentences, with strong characters and snappy narration to spin a master class in how to write a page-turner. I normally avoid page turners as I find they often offer titillation without substance, but I often felt my heart pound as I read, my brain not reading quickly enough, not being able to keep up with my emotions or desire to find out what happened next.

A worthy tale of the one who brought us Clockers. 

Richard Price, The Whites, 2015. Bloomsbury. ISBN-13: 978-1408864593.

⏩ Simon Smyth is an avid reader and collector of books.

The Whites

Simon Smyth answers 13 questions in a Booker's Dozen.

TPQ: What are you currently reading?

Simon: I am on my last ten pages of the conclusion of Unfinished Business by Marisa McGlinchey. I started a few months ago but read two or three books since I started it so it really is unfinished business. Very informative and enjoyable but unfinished.

TPQ: Best book you have ever read?

Simon: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Different translations of the classics can be better than others and a bad translation can be very off-putting. I really go in for a book that has a nice feel as well. I was lucky to have a Folio edition of this book which had a nice feel and to the untrained eye, an excellent translation.

TPQ: First book to truly own you?

Simon: Our family library, although not massive with its two small bookcases, had a number of gems like Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan, a number of books containing Irish short-stories, many books specifically for children and others like A Book of Ireland by Frank O'Connor. My granda gave me a copy of The IRA by Tim Pat Coogan when I was in my early to mid teens which was written in 1969 so didn't include any content on the imminent split except to say in the preface that abstentionism had ended. All these books were extremely welcome and I was extremely lucky to have the chance to delve into them until I had exhausted my options. We were also regular library goers and I used to be fanatical about the colourful book club pamphlet that arrived regularly to our desks at primary school. However, the first book to own me as a grown child of 13 was Papillion by Henri Charrière. It was a believable yet outlandish boys-own style adventure story and it was the first book I truly escaped in. I couldn't believe it when my brother told me there was a film.

TPQ: Book most cherished as a child?

Simon: I used to have a collection of Enid Blyton, Mr Men books, and Dr Seuss, dinosaur books etc. and when I was older I used to love more challenging dinosaur books, Roald Dahl and The Three Investigators which I preferred over the Hardy Boys books. I guess the book that stands out the most is Dahl's Danny the Champion of the World However, I was given a beautifully illustrated Children's Bible on the day of my First Communion by a relative who was a priest and although I have lost the faith I once had, I still have the book and also the money somewhere if I went to look for it.

TPQ: Favourite childhood author?

Simon: As a very young child I adored Blyton's Big Ears and Noddy books. Then came Roald Dahl who would have written my favourite childhood stories or Spike Milligan who wrote my favourite childhood poems. His Silly Verse for Kids still has me in ruptures. I once asked my mum to find more poems by Anonymous who I had held in such esteem as my favourite poet. Ah, the innocence of youth. Milligan's many-volumed war memoirs were special to me too as I was finding my place in this world.

TPQ: A "must read" you intend chalking up before you die?

Simon: I had originally thought of saying The Dubliners because it has been in my library for 25 odd years but after thinking about it, have decided that a response like that would be a cop-out. I have read the first volume of Tony Benn's diaries and thoroughly enjoyed it so would place the other volumes on my "must read" list. I found the personal detail about his family fascinating, even more than the politics, and of course with any life story you can learn important wisdom, without the trouble of taking the associated knocks.

A Berlin Book Tower in memory of the Nazi book burning.

TPQ: A preference for fact or fiction?

Simon: It depends on what mood I am in but other than that I don't have a preference.

TPQ: Favourite male and female author?

Simon: To my dishonour and regret I find it harder to choose between the male authors which perhaps says more about me than I would like to admit. I'd say Walter Macken as although he doesn't write the best books, there are a plethora of them and they are magical and consistent. If I really like an author I will read everything they have written so have entire collections of series on my shelves. Mari Sandoz is my favourite female author. After I read Dee Browns books on the American West I voraciously read any others I could get my hands on. Sandoz wrote the best of these. I feel the story of the Native Americans is analogous and prophetic to the story of the planet.

TPQ: Any book you point blank refuse to read?

Simon: I wouldn't rule out anything but will tend to stay close to those I am really drawn to. All those I am not really keen on will not make the reading list. I have so many books in my collection I will never read them all so although it's good being open minded, those billions of books which don't make my 'must read' list are all going to be refused. The worst book I ever read was The Heroes who Fell from Grace. It's a book on the Vietnam War, a true story about high ranking buffoons in the US Army who went back to Vietnam, after the war had ended, to rescue any P.O.W.s that remained. They had prayer meetings before every mission and gave a television interview prior to leaving on their 'secret mission'. The Mekong River was so wide they lost each other crossing it: some swam back to the bank they had left thinking they had made it. They paid ransom money for some of their captured party. The writing was as unsuccessful as their manoeuvres. I'd refuse point blank to read that again.

TPQ: Any author you point blank refuse to read?

Simon: I will point to my last answer and mention that I once had an aversion to chick-lit until I looked up an author whose excellent short story appeared in a collection I was reading. The internet described her as "the Queen of Chick-lit". Well, it was my first foray into chick-lit and I didn't even know it! Better than The Heroes who Fell from Grace at any rate.

TPQ: A book to share with somebody so that they would more fully understand you?

Small is Beautiful by Dr. E.F. Schumacher which is about intermediate or appropriate technology, about sustainability rather than constant growth.

TPQ: Last book you gave as a present?

Simon: Mr Nice by Howard Marks.

TPQ: Book you would most like to see turned into a movie?

Simon: We have had the Mr Men, Mr Benn and Mr Nice so why not Mr Blue by Edward Bunker. The character John Voight played in Heat was based on Edward Bunker, in mannerisms and appearance and he practically played himself in Reservoir Dogs. Both these times he was used to add a touch of gritty realism to the criminals. He was the youngest inmate in San Quentin and as well as his biography wrote many top quality American crime novels. Quentin Tarantino states No Beast so Fierce is the best crime novel he has read but I didn't rate it as highly as Dog Eat Dog or Little Boy Blue. His book The Animal Factory has already been made into a movie. His memoirs would make a great film.

⏩Simon Smyth is an avid reader and collector of books.

Booker's Dozen @ Simon Smyth

Simon Smyth reviews two books about the Northern conflict. Simon Smyth is an incurable book connoisseur.
 
I enjoy books analysing Irish history and in particular the Troubles.  So when I noticed a favourable mention of We Wrecked the Place by Jonathan Stevenson in a comment on The Pensive Quill.  I was impelled to hunt it down.  One book I avoided was Kieran Conway’s Southside Provisional as I was put off by what I assumed was arrogance and snobbery in the excerpts of the book I read online and in newspapers.  Luckily I read both works (the latter by chance rather than by planning).

We Wrecked The Place & Southside Provisional


Simon Smyth with a review of the Vietnam War novel, Matterhorn. Simon Smyth is a voracious reader and collector of books.

Matterhorn is a novel written by Karl Marlantes, a decorated Vietnam veteran and author of the non-fiction book What  it is like to go to war.

Matterhorn

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