My obituary of Elijah Cummings, recent foil (and thus, inevitably, target) of Donald Trump as head of the House Oversight Committee, was online at the Guardian yesterday, and is in the paper paper today. You can link to the online version here. It is pretty much as I wrote it; a couple of literals snuck in, but they also edited it nicely to make clearer his children and relationships. There were a couple of other stories. One I left out because I didn't see it as relevant, which involved the murder of his nephew at college in Virginia. Another was the mini-scandal around his debts, including on taxes, at one point in his life. The source I was reading attributed it to ill-health, which I thought might have some relevance given his poor health in the last few years, but another source mentioned his child support payments, which led me to dig out his first wife and the parentage of his three kids. I left the debt out, but as I said, I thought the piece in the end explains his children well. One of his daughters was also in the news when it turned out she was using Cummings' congressional car while driving for Lyft, which isn't quite at Hunter Biden levels of scandal, but did get a lot of press.
Last summer I posed for a picture in my Baltimore Elite Giants shirt (they were a team in baseball's Negro Leagues, and the Elite was pronounced ee-lite) in support of Rep. Cummings when Trump was attacking him, and the city of Baltimore, in which I worked one summer and which I liked immensely, because, even though it was still more or less de facto segregated, it was a real city. Cummings strikes me as an old-fashioned machine kind of politician, although the machine has changed as it constituent parts have changed, and one who, when he had his opportunity on the bigger stages, didn't let that constituency down. RIP
Friday, 18 October 2019
Wednesday, 9 October 2019
DANIEL SILVA'S ENGLISH SPY
The English Spy is
the first novel by Daniel Silva I have read, but it is instructive in
revealing some of the secrets of his immense popularity in spy
fiction. The story begins with the detonation of a bomb aboard a
yacht, which kills an English princess, part Diana part Kate, and
sparks a massive investigation. The early signs lead English spy
chief Graham Seymour, engaged in an ongoing feud/battle with the head of MI5 who is his former boss, to enlist the help of the Israelis, who have identified the killer.'He's an old friend' says the head of Mossad. 'Of yours, or ours?' asks Seymoure. 'Of yours', Uzi Navot replies. 'We have no friends.' Which means
Silva's Gabriel Allen, the art restorer about to become head of the
Mossad, comes on board. And because they are chasing after a former
IRA bomb maker turned international terrorist named Eamonn Quinn, the
two men turn to Christopher Keller, an assassin who once knew Quinn
while he was infiltrating the IRA on behalf of the British.
From this beginning
flows an international game of cat and mouse, a plot that is so
inventive it was surprising Quinn, who appears to have structured
much of it, does not get enough credit for the brilliance of his
plan. And of course, it all points back to Ireland, recalling the
past killings and betrayals that are the mark of international spies
and assassins.
Allen, in many ways,
is the English spy of the title; or perhaps it's Keller, and the two
make an interesting pair, one which seems to have been set up for the
future (note: I have not read further, or indeed back, in the saga,
of which this is the fifteenth). In Silva's world the English are
the civilised masters of the game, the Israelis are the harder edged
forces having to deal with a more violent reality. Allen is the
exception; the Israeli who to all extents and purposes is the very
model of a modern MI operative. Their opponents, Irish or Arab, are
almost universally evil, a lesser breed. And the Americans are the
bulls in the china shop, blundering, unsophisticated, unreliable.
It's an interesting world view. It's the sort of stuff I used to see
businessmen reading in the business class lounge at Dusseldorf
airport.
The story comes down
to personal face to face violence. There are two former Russian
sleeper agents involved, there are hints of lost love, and all the
while Silva's new, Italian wife, is about to give birth in an Israeli
hospital. The resolution makes sense, although there is a coda which
is appropriate enough, but seems somehow forced, given the nature of
Quinn and Keller. There is nothing fancy about Silva's prose, but he
keeps the plot moving at a good pace and, as I said, the plot is
immensely satisfying.
The English Spy by
Daniel Silva
Harper Collins £8.99
ISBN 9870007552337
BREXIT: A MODEST PROPOSAL My suggestions via Arc Digital
I've written a piece for Arc Digital suggesting an easy way to make the current conundrum over Brexit something more bearable, entertaining and successful for all concerned. The piece was recommended to readers on Medium, in their World section, and they have provided a link by which you can read it and laugh without necessarily having to subscribe there, though that's not a bad idea. You can find that link here....happy reading
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