Publishing Projects

 

I have started 2011 with the intention of creating a number of self-published written works, to supplement this blog and others that I maintain.

My two main publishing projects for this year are:

1. A series of essays under the working title of Understanding the Times: Essays in Christian Engagement

2. A book examining the radical Christian history of Bristol, my home town.

The essays will  be published once a month on the You Publish site and will be available to download as PDF documents.

In fact, the first essay, setting the scene and introducing the theme, has been uploaded already and can be read here.

Comments welcome, as always. 

The image is Ship of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch, and forms the front cover of the first essay.

Publishing Projects

I have started 2011 with the intention of creating a number of self-published written works, to supplement this blog and others that I maintain.

My two main publishing projects for this year are:

1. A series of essays under the working title of Understanding the Times: Essays in Christian Engagement

2. A book examining the radical Christian history of Bristol, my home town.

The series of essays arise from the same root motivation as this blog - namely to relate the Christian faith to the real world of politics, economics and culture.  They will hopefully be of interest to people of all faiths and none. 

The essays will  be published once a month on the You Publish site and will be available to download as PDF documents.

In fact, the first essay, setting the scene and introducing the theme, has been uploaded already and can be read here.

Comments welcome, as always. 

The image is Ship of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch, and forms the front cover of the first essay.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Democratic Geeks: The Rise of the Data Journalist

Have recently published an article on Data Journalism over at Writing Hood.

A modest and early foray of mine into the world of using official data to create an application is my 2009 Bristol crime map, located here.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Related articles

• Journalists of the future need data skills, says Berners-Lee (guardian.co.uk)
• Analysing data is the future for journalists, says Tim Berners-Lee (guardian.co.uk)

When it's Cool to be a Historian

I read the following paragraph recently from Martin Gilbert's A History of the Twentieth Century (Volume Three, 1952-1999) and thought about how much fun he must have had writing it.

The section is about the invasion of Kuwait by the army of Iraq in 1990 and the response of the global community to it. Quoting President Bush (senior) from his memoirs, Gilbert writes:

"In the first few weeks of the crisis, I happened to be reading a book on World War II by the British historian Martin Gilbert. I saw a direct analogy between what was occurring in Kuwait and what the Nazis had done, especially in Poland....I saw a chilling parallel with what the Iraqi occupiers were doing in Kuwait."

I can imagine a fictitious conversation in the future:

What did you do during the war, granddad?

Well son, I used the excellent facilities of Merton College, Oxford to write books that influenced world leaders. Now bring me my slippers, there's a good lad.

Marvellous.







If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Satanic Verses - 20 Years On

A few links from commentators marking the 20th anniversary of the fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini against British writer Salman Rushdie over the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses.

A brief summary of the issue from the BBC web site.

Lisa Appignanesi comments on the ban from a non-censorship perspective.

The legacy of the fatwa was to make public criticism of Islam as a religion politically and socially unacceptable, says Kenan Malik.

Interview with Salman Rushdie from 1990.

The Times of India on the challenges of publishing "offensive" books post-Rusdie.

Members of the Iranian Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission explain why they believe the fatwa is still in force and should be implemented.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Harold Pinter Quote

Harold Pinter, the British Playwright who died on Christmas Eve, spoke these words after receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005:

"The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law....

How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand?"

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Libel, Literature and Censorship

English PEN and Index on Censorship are launching a public inquiry into libel legislation in the UK. The decision reflects increasing concern from both oranisations and others about the extent to which courts are being used to stifle investigative journalism and other forms of legitimate expression.

The inquiry will invite submissions from publishers, writers, editors, journalists, lawyers and other interested parties and will culminate in a major conference next spring.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has already signaled its concern that English libel law discourages "Critical media reporting on matters of serious public interest, adversely affecting the ability of scholars and journalists to publish their work, including through the phenomenon known as libel tourism”.

One to watch.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.