Allan Massie 
Allan Massie is an author and journalist. He has written more than twenty novels, most recently the Bordeaux Quartet, crime novels set in France during the years of the German Occupation 1940-45. He reviews books for The Wall Street Journal, The Scotsman and The Spectator. He lives with his wife in the Scottish Borders, and is a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Cultural Caviar
Harris Takes On ‘Munich’Sep 29 2017 The other evening I chaired an event in Edinburgh at which Robert Harris was introducing his splendid new novel, Munich. It’s sure to be a |
Uncategorized
Who Can Say?Sep 22 2017 Long before I started writing about politics, I learned one important lesson: What is said to be inevitable doesn’t necessarily happen. Way back in 1965 |
Environmental Snafus
Why Risk It?Sep 15 2017 Twenty years or so ago I was doubtful about climate change and global warming. This was partly because I remembered that back in the 1970s |
International Affairs
Engaging the Hermit KingdomSep 08 2017 Writing about an international crisis a couple of days before publication risks making you look like a fool—okay, a bigger fool than usual. Politicians, of |
Cultural Caviar
Out of Bounds?Sep 01 2017 The young man at the supermarket checkout asked me if I would be watching the fight. “No,” I said, “more a media event than sport.” |
Cultural Caviar
History LessonsAug 25 2017 “History teaches us no lessons but we insist on trying to learn from it.” That’s the first sentence of a Spectator review of John Bew’s |
Uncategorized
Looking BackwardsAug 18 2017 Few people will speak in favor of slavery now. It’s illegal in every country with any claim to being civilized. I doubt if even the |
Cultural Caviar
Hitler’s SurvivalAug 11 2017 Robert Harris’ new novel, Munich, will be published in September. It’s too early to review it, but I’ve read a proof copy and can say |
Uncategorized
Swearing Up and DownAug 04 2017 What I take to be a very well-oiled revolving door has ejected Mr. Scaramucci from the White House before he had properly got in. I’m |
Britain
The Shipbuilder’s WordsJul 28 2017 In the first chapter of Shadows of Empire, a novel I wrote twenty years ago, an old shipbuilder and shipping magnate, in conversation with his |
Uncategorized
A Question of CourageJul 21 2017 John Lodwick was a British author"Anglo-Irish, really"who had an adventurous war, to put it mildly, wrote a dozen or so novels, and was killed in |
International Affairs
Patience and TimeJul 14 2017 In War and Peace Tolstoy has Russian generals urging the commander in chief Marshal Kutuzov to stand and fight Napoleon instead of continuing to retreat. |
Cultural Caviar
In Defense of Al JazeeraJul 07 2017 It's probable that few of us in the West have much time for either Saudi Arabia or Qatar. There are exceptions, of course. Our governments |
Europe
A Matter of SovereigntyJun 30 2017 The word "sovereignty" was bandied about during our E.U. referendum last year, and there were many who said that Edward Heath, the prime minister who |
Uncategorized
A Sobering ThoughtJun 23 2017 Drinking was great fun when we were young. There were few things that I enjoyed more. Like Terry Lennox in Raymond Chandler's most booze-sodden"and that's |
Cultural Caviar
When the Almighty DeliversJun 16 2017 It's absurd to say that the terrorism sponsored by ISIS and al-Qaeda has nothing to do with Islam. Obviously it has. They tell us this |
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Racquet RoyaltyJun 09 2017 Next year it will be half a century since tennis went open, with the distinction between amateurs and professionals abolished. Previously it was a sport |
Middle East Conflict
A War of CulturesJun 02 2017 Islamist terrorism is going to be with us for a long time; there will be more atrocities like the one in Manchester last week, and |
#RESISTANCE
CA Is AppropriateMay 26 2017 Anthony Horowitz, author of the very successful Alex Rider books (teen novels about a schoolboy spy) and the excellent TV series Foyle's War, has landed |
British Politics
Timing Is EverythingMay 19 2017 William Gladstone, the great Victorian Liberal leader, the most successful electoral politician of the age, believed that success in politics depended on right timing. This |
Cultural Caviar
We Are All MongrelsMay 11 2017 Byron Rogers, a journalist whose work I always enjoy, has a nice story about some discovery relating perhaps to King Arthur that spawned a conference |
Britain
Political LightweightsMay 05 2017 People often complain about the professionalism of politics today, but the truth is, at the top level, our politicians aren"t half professional enough. They lack |
Uncategorized
Days of the ClydesApr 28 2017 The Horseman by Tim Pears is one of the best novels I"ve read in a long time. The first part of a projected trilogy, it |
Britain
Our Slippery Prime MinisterApr 21 2017 "The lady's not for turning," famously declared Margaret Thatcher, and to her credit the Old Girl rarely did. Not so the second woman to become |
Looking Back
War is HellApr 14 2017 Thinking about Syria, I"ve been rereading The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944"45, Ian Kershaw's brilliant and comprehensive study of the German |
International Affairs
The Nuclear GambleApr 07 2017 Harry Truman was in the White House and Donald Trump hadn"t yet been conceived when atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman was |
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