ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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Evaluating Roger Casement
PAUL DONOVAN enjoys a valuable contribution to a wider understanding of the remarkable human rights activist turned Irish freedom fighter
FORENSIC EVIDENCE : Roger Casement photographed these native youths, in Colombia’s Putumayo region, who were forced to carry and estimated their weight at 75 kilos each. The Indians carried them over a distance of 100 kms without food being given. Writer Mario Vargas Llosa said of him: “He should be regarded as a pioneer in the fight against colonialism, racism and prejudice.”
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
Broken Archangel — The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement
Roland Philipps
Bodley Head, £25
THIS thorough investigation of the life of Sir Roger Casement delves deep into the emotional waters of a man who lived a remarkable life and whose fame seems to grow with the passing years.
It was always going to be some story. Casement was an Irishman who rose from humble beginnings to the heights of the British diplomatic service at a time when Britain really did rule the waves. His achievements were such that he was knighted in 1912, retiring from the diplomatic service in July 1913 on a generous pension. Yet, just three short years later, the country that had honoured Casement was executing him for treason.
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