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“Superheroes Never Die. Comics and Jewish Memories” exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Belgium

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So, I went to the "Superheroes Never Die. Comics and Jewish Memories" exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Belgium yesterday. It was as good as I had hoped, linking the origins of the American comics tradition with the authors' experience of immigration and integration.

There is a particularly interesting moment from 1940 when Superman, taking Adolf Hitler captive, threatens him with "a strictly non-Aryan sock on your jaw".

It was also a bit chilling to see America's knowledge of Belgium in the first world war reflected in a comic of 1914.

There is lots of lovely art.

Also, Batman and Robin now have competition.

You have plenty of time to catch it – it's on until 26 April (my birthday). It's at Rue des Minimes 21, just off the Grand Sablon.

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My tweets

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  • Wed, 21:21: When Salvador Dal� Created Christmas Cards That Were Too Avant Garde for Hallmark (1960) | Open Culture https://t.co/gHw1b9iGPJ
  • Thu, 10:45: RT @johnb78: If the courts had declared me to be a massive bigot, I would simply spend Christmas compiling a list of the bigoted things tha…
  • Thu, 11:54: RT @DavidOBowles: It’s become popular to deny that the Dual God Ometeotl was ever a thing. Many folks argue that scholar Miguel León-Portil…
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Tuesday reading (last of the year)

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I’ll do a reading roundup next Tuesday, but it will be for twelve months, not seven days!

Current
The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey
Doctor Who: The Target Storybook, ed. Steve Cole

Last books finished
Being Human: Bad Blood, by James Goss
Wildthyme Beyond!, by Paul Magrs
Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution, by Stephen Zunes
Being Human: Chasers, by Mark Michalowski

Next books
Dragonworld, by Byron Preiss
Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman

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June 2004 books

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June 2004 was the month I switched from my old explorers@whyte.com email address, which I'd had since 1997, to my Gmail address, which I've had ever since. Ronald Reagan died; the new European Parliament was elected. Those were more innocent times. I also posted my Hugo finalists review.

This was the month of my one and only trip to Russia, a hasty 48 hours in Moscow (actually a bit less, two days and a night). We also published reports on Moldova and Bosnia, and I had an op-ed on Moldova published in European Voice which seems to have vanished from their archive but is preserved by my former employers.

Non-fiction 5 (YTD 21)
Roger Zelazny, by Jane Lindskold
Black Garden, by Thomas de Waal
A Turkey Travelogue, by Mark C. Leeper
Avonturen van een Nederbelg, by Derk Jan Eppink
Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord Of The Rings, by Lin Carter, updated by Adam Roberts

Non-genre 3 (YTD 7)
Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
Beasts & Super-Beasts, by Saki
Reginald in Russia, by Saki

SF 3 (YTD 35)
Gather, Darkness!, by Fritz Leiber
Down and Out In The Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow
On Basilisk Station, by David Weber

2,800 pages (YTD 23,200)
2/11 by women (YTD 17/66)
none by PoC (YTD 1/66)

Links above to my reviews, below to Amazon.

Top book of the month was Thomas de Waal's account of Nagorno-Karabakh, updated by his new book on the Caucasus published this year, which I have got but not yet read. I did not know anything much about him back in 2004; we are now friends. You can get it here. Second favourite is Saki's eternal Beasts and Super-Beasts, which you can get here. Two to avoid: Carter on Tolkien, and On Basilisk Station.

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My top Livejournal posts of 2019

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As the deafening noise of tumbleweed grows, here are the three LJ posts that got five or more comments this year.

2 June: a post about objets d’art in Utrecht and Leuven. 5 comments.
1 December: Dr Strangelove, the book it was based on and the book of the film. Also 5 comments.

18 February: The 54 whole numbers whose square root is less than or equal to their number of divisors. 8 comments.

How the mighty have fallen.

(Last year I tried posting an analysis of my LinkedIn posts as well, but it’s really impossible to pull meaningful statistics.)

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My top tweets of 2019

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I’ve been fiddling around with the methodology of rating top tweets using the analytics that Twitter provides, and I’ve finally come up with a solution that satisfies me – rank them all, by all the rankings available; and add together the reciprocal of each ranking to get an overall score. That gives me a top 22 which I am goign to share with you. Tough, it’s my blog.

In 22nd place, election day commentary and the one and only tweet of the year that got an app opened (whatever that means):

21) Start of a bitter thread commenting on the UK’s Foreign Office.

20) End of a long and bitter thread predicting No Deal as the most likely outcome of Brexit:

19) Jeannette Ng’s speech from the Hugo ceremony.

18) The Twitter version of the crowdsourcing question, which led to a blog post and then my Five Books interview:

17) Start of another pessimistic Brexit thread.

16) A nice little video moment from the British parliament attempting to twist Sir Ivan Rogers, who played a straight bat in return (if that is the right metaphor):

15) One of a series of tweets (that got misinterpreted by a Belfast journalist), projecting the local government election votes onto the Westminster constituency boundaries.

14) The Flemish press came up with a good term for Boris Johnson.

13) Another Brexit thread, this time critiquing a POLITICO article.

12) Not very surprisingly, this got the most permalink clicks of the year.

11) Science fiction meets commentary on the UK Supreme Court.

10) In the run up to the Hugo voting deadline, some votes were very close.

9) Another of the tweets projecting local election results in Northern Ireland to Westminster constituency boundaries.

8) One of the two most successful local election commentary tweets.

7) The Twitter version of my most commented post on Facebook for the year – this also got the most replies of any of my posts on Twitter.

6) Start of my local government elections thread. It got the most “detail expands”, whatever that means.

5) My most popular local election tweet – I think because it was a fairly early result, and a dramatic one. Also got the most hashtag clicks (on #LE19).

4) My best scoring tweet from European election commentary. I’m pleased with this picture. I had just taken one with Naomi Long and Diane Dodds looking away, and Martina Anderson looking at me; as I took it, Martina Anderson said my name and the other two immediately looked in my direction, so I got this much better shot as well.

3) The best performing of my tweets on the local election votes, projected to the Westminster boundaries, and also had the highest :engagement rate” (whatever that is) of any of my 2019 tweets. South Belfast is a very volatile seat.

2) Another of my long Brexit threads. This one got me the most new followers. (Five, which is the same as the equivalent tweet last year.)

1) Top tweet of the year, by a long way. It got the most impressions, most engagements, most retweets, most likes, most user profile clicks, most url clicks, most media views and most media engagements of all of my 2019 tweets. Sadly the content is not original, but deserved to be reposted.

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My top Facebook posts of 2019

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I had a couple of Facebook posts that went viral this year. The best performing was one where I didn't actually write the material myself, but shared it from a screenshot, and it got picked up by the two linguistic communities concerned, etting 99 shares.

This Brexit commentary was my own material, and got 21 shares.

My five Facebook posts that got the most comments, in ascending order, were this Brexit commentary (actually copied from an FT journalist’s tweet, with attribution):

…which was beaten by this Brexit commentary:

…which was beaten by this very brief Brexit commentary:

…which was beaten by this crowdsourcing question, which led to a blog post and then my Five Books interview:

…but all were beaten by this slightly stalkerish meme riffing off the Conservative Party leadership contest.

My five most liked (etc) Facebook posts of the year were in general less political. In fifth place, sheer vanity:

Beaten by this, where I should have credited the artist:

Beaten by this scene of debauchery from the work Christmas party:

Beaten by B’s birthday:

But coming in at a massive 640 likes is a picture of me and an adult relative who is not a Facebook user; it is therefore a private post, but even so 640 people liked it. If we are Facebook friends, you can see it here.

However I should say that my most-liked Facebook post of 2018 was made after I had worked out the numbers for last year

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My top Instagram posts of 2019

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It's not all that easy to measure Instagram impact (and they are going to make it more difficult). These two videos both got between 300 and 400 views.

My top five Instagram photo posts were:

https://instagram.com/p/ByvCULPI-AH

(A visit to the Vatican)

https://instagram.com/p/B3PQPPTokDU

(A visit to Dordrecht)

https://instagram.com/p/B2ZWB-PILhW

(The two younger kids at a comics festival in Brussels)

https://instagram.com/p/By5SQSPIlCh

(B’s birthday)

https://instagram.com/p/Bugxt_ngZU0

(Doctor Who content will seriously increase your footprint!)

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My media in 2019

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My biggest media appearances were the BBC election broadcasts for the three elections in Northern Ireland, with my long-term sparring partner Mark Devenport. Not much of it is online, but I am in 2:49-3:35 here:

Some viewers' responses were a little, er, unusual…

The most important piece that I wrote on Northern Ireland was for the Irish Times, published 10 July, setting out the three preconditions as I see them for a referendum on unifying Ireland to be successful.


(Click to embiggen)

Apart from that, on Northern Ireland I was quoted three times by Rory Carroll in the Guardian:
12 July: Belfast bonfire 'victory' masks tide turning against loyalist Twelfth
15 August: How the 'neithers' could decide Northern Ireland's political fate
20 December: How Northern Ireland vote was punishment for Stormont impasse

I also did a piece for the Newsletter on 10 January, being sceptical about the SDLP-Fianna Fáil link.

Finally, a Belgian journalism student interviewed me a couple of weeks ago for a piece explaining the connection between Northern Ireland and Brexit.

Apart from the BBC election coverage, I did two televised panel discussions with Tian Wei on CGTN's flagship programme World Insight. The first was on the Biarritz summit. My bits are are 14:40-18:30 and 23:25-24:50.

The second was on Brexit. I got a bit more time here, 6:45-8:15, 13:34-14:46, 16:45-19:10 and briefly 25:40-25:55. The exchanges between Tian Wei and Cui Hongjian are particularly interesting as an insight into how Chinese commentators view the functioning of democratic systems in general.

In print, I was interviewed by Bloomberg on speculation about the future of Margrethe Vestager on 13 March. (A memorable interview for me; I was at the airport in Prishtina, Kosovo, talking down the line on a connection which seemed just about robust enough…)

I got some decent coverage from a 9 May Foreign Policy piece on why some countries don't have populism, which led on to an interview with Euronews on the same topic – the English version of the story did not use the video, but the Spanish, Hungarian and Portuguese versions did. Here’s the Spanish version: I am in it at 1:19-1:54 and again at 2:18-2:44.

I did a more general preview of the elections for the Law Societies, and commented on the energy/environmental aspect here.

The Hugo Awards brought me a spot on Five Books, a site I have loved if not followed closely for ages, so I was thrilled about that – it had a lot of resonance. The awards themselves were covered in Irish Tech News, and Polygon quoted me on Archive Of Our Own qualifying for the final ballot.

Finally, I did a lot of speeches etc throughout the year, but two of my hosts put out press releases mentioning me, within a week of each other in March: the Cass Business School and the National Council of Insurance Legislators.

Further posts coming on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Livejournal.

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It’s Gauda Prime Day – so here is my write-up of the fourth and final series of Blake’s 7

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Today is the anniversary of the last episode of Blake’s 7 being first shown on TV, and we hardcore fans refer to 21 December as Gauda Prime Day after the planet on which that last episode was set. It’s the end of my revisiting the show – I realised actually that I had missed quite a lot of it first time round, so it’s been a lovely journey of discovery as well as rediscovery. (If you want to see my previous write-ups they are here, here, here and here)

4.1 Rescue, written by Chris Boucher, directed by Mary Ridge

Well, we really are off with a bang, as the planet Terminal explodes, taking poor Cally with it. (She got reincarnated, I think, as a woman widowed during the Troubles in one of the Northern Ireland Office’s peace advertisements about ten years later.) And our crew get rescued by Dorian, who is a direct lift from Oscar Wilde, with an alien alter ego in the basement; when he turns out to be evil and is disposed of, his girlfriend Soolin joins the team. Fans are generally a bit down on this series, but I enjoyed most of the stories, including this one; it gets a bit over the top at the end (the monster is only just passable), but in particular I thought Geoffrey Burridge was great as Dorian himself; I am surprised that he was not better known.

Glynis Barber as new regular Soolin isn’t quite as intense as Cally, but doen’t annoy me as much as Tarrant. She has actually been here before, as a mutoid in the first series.

Dialogue triumphs:

Dayna: Don’t you ever get bored with being right?
Avon: Just with the rest of you being wrong.

Avon: ‘A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.’ Cally once said that was a saying among her people.
Dorian: Who’s Cally?
Avon: Cally was murdered. So were most of her people.

Dayna: Cheer up, Vila. You’ve got a lot of very bright associates too.
Vila: Oh yeah? Name six.

4.2 Power, written by Ben Steed, directed by Mary Ridge

Having said that I liked most of this series’ episodes, this was pretty dire – another battle of the sexes story by Ben Steed. You know, if the women and men of the planet Xenon have been at war with each other for years, where do all the little Xenonians come from? (Actually we don’t see any, so perhaps that’s the answer.) The other pot strand is a well-done locked-door problem with Vila and Avon, but the clunky sexism rather spoils it. Avon does one of his power snogs with Pella (Juliet Hammond-Hill).

We have two crossover with the Sixth Doctor story Timelash, where Dicken Ashworth, playing the leader of the menfolk here, is Sezon, and Paul Darrow of course is Tekker. Unfortunately I don’t think they are in any scenes together.

Dialogue triumphs:

Pella: You must be very clever.
Vila: That’s what I keep telling everyone. They even believed me in CF One.
Pella: CF One?
Vila: A sort of academy, when I was a boy. They chose me as technical advisor for the escape.
Pella: Escape? From an academy?
Vila Restal: Perhaps academy was the wrong word.

4.3 Traitor, written by Robert Holmes, directed by David Sullivan Proudfoot

One of the great Robert Holmes’ less great contributions to the series, this has the Scorpio crew observing politics on a planet where really the most interesting thing is that Servalan, for some unknown reason, has decided to rename herself Sleer. Once again the Federation has a vulnerable and underdefended communications terminal (you’d think they’d have learned by now).

Two Doctor Who crossovers. Christopher Neame, here Colonel Quute, was Skagra in the unshown Fourth Doctor story Shada.

And David Quilter, here playing a soldier known only as The Tracer, appears in New Who as the butler in the Tenth Doctor Agatha Christie story, The Unicorn and the Wasp.

Dialogue triumph:

Avon: These old freighters are fitted with short burn boosters to help get their payloads into orbit. Orac is figuring out a way to redesign them to give us extra inflight speed.
Soolin: I thought he was keeping unusually silent.
Avon: Probably sulking. One of the almost human things about Orac is that it does not like to work. [Silkily] Orac.
Orac: Yes, Avon.
Avon: Any progress with the booster problem?
Orac: There has been no reply yet.
Avon: What do you mean, no reply?
Orac: I passed the program to computers specializing in engineering design.
Avon: You mean you can’t handle it yourself?
Orac: The art of leadership is delegation.

4.4 Stardrive, written by James Follett, directed by David Sullivan Proudfoot

I vividly remember the opening sequence of this episode from the first showing in 1981 – I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with asteroids, and feel a bit defensively that they are given a bum rap here; asteroids are perfectly safe if you approach them correctly, just like any large animal. We now know of course, as we didn’t in 1981, that real asteroids tend to be less lumpy than this one. (It’s also a bit bizarre to think that you could zoom undetected into a star system hiding behind an asteroid, though Stephen Baxter also wrote a novella with that plot.)

The rest of the spisode is pretty silly, with the punk Space Rats driving their fast vehicles around, both on and off planet. (Follett had a thing about depraved youth.) One Doctor Who crossover, Barbara Shelley, who is Dr Plaxton here and would go on to play Sorasta in the Fifth Doctor story Planet of Fire.

Dialogue triumph (not a great selection here):

Dayna: Sometimes, Vila, you can be quite disgusting.
Vila: Not so, my lovely. I can be disgusting all the time. It’s easy.

4.5 Animals, written by Allan Prior, directed by Mary Ridge

This is Dayna’s best episode this season, which is not saying much; she encounters a former lover and gets brainwashed and then unbrainwashed by Servalan (whose means and motivation remain as obscure as ever). Dayna’s ex has been running experiments a la Dr Moreau, but exactly why is not clear. Josette Simon and Peter Byrne do display some impressive chemistry (which is actually a bit errrr given that the two actors are 32 years apart in age).

There is one brilliant scene with Kevin Stoney, previously a Senator, returning as a blind scientist who recognises Servalan but wisely decides not to say so. He of course was on Doctor Who many times.

Two other Doctor Who crossovers. Servalan’s captain-of-the-week is played by William Lindsay, previously Zargo, the vampire leader in the Fourth Doctor story State of Decay.

And Servalan’s intelligence-officer-on-a-screen is played by Max Henderson, who would soon after be Cardinal Zorac, wearing a fetching red helm, in the Fifth Doctor story Arc of Infinity.

Dialogue triumph:

Tarrant: Will he remember you?
Dayna (grinning): I should hope so.

4.6 Headhunter, written by Roger Parkes, directed by Mary Ridge

Cor, this is a different matter. I hate stories about cute anthropomorphic robots. But this is a story about a deceptive homicidal robot that appears to want to make love to Orac. And it’s a very well done murder mystery – it turns out that the scientist Muller has been killed and decapitated by his own creation, much to the dismay of his lover who the Scorpio crew have somehow got hold of. There’s great stuff between the crew as well. One of the memorable episodes from this season (I think I must have missed it in 1981). Muller’s lover Veena is played by Lynda Bellingham, who of course was the Prosecutor in the Sixth Doctor Trial of a Time Lord season.

(The android is played by Nick Joseph, who was an extra in several Doctor Who stories, but as we don’t see his face I won’t use a photo here.)

Dialogue triumphs:

Orac (possessed by the evil android): Join us, Soolin. We can fulfill your every desire.
Soolin (turning Orac off): You wouldn’t know where to start.

4.7 Assassin, written by Rod Beacham, directed by David Sullivan Proudfoot

This is a game of two halves. The first half, with Avon being sold as a slave, is very silly indeed. But the second half, with Caroline Holdaway as terrified ex-prisoner Piri whose true homicidal nature only gradually becomes apparent, is very well done indeed, and actually I think she is rather good. (Apologies for the spoiler, but this was first broadcast in 1981!)

A big Doctor Who crossover here: Richard Hurndall’s turn as Avon’s fellow slave Nebrox, according to lore, was directly responsible for his casting as William Hartnell’s replacement as the First Doctor in The Five Doctors.

Not quite as historic, Adam Blackwood here plays one of the auction bidders, Tok, with a lot of extra facial hair, and went on to be the clean-shaven Balazar, the reader of the Books of Knowledge in The Mysterious Planet, the first part of the Sixth Doctor’s Trial of a Time Lord.

I’m going to note a crossover with Here Come the Double Deckers! too – Betty Marsden, who plays the auctioneer Verlis, was Millie the lady camper in the utterly glorious episode Summer Camp.

Dialogue triumph (ish):

Soolin slaps Piri’s face.
Tarrant: You enjoyed that, didn’t you?
Soolin: There are two classic ways of dealing with an hysterical woman; you didn’t really expect me to kiss her, did you?

4.8 Games, written by Bill Lyons, directed by Vivienne Cozens

Another great sfnal plot – a mad scientist who is also a game designer and has a strange relationship with his computer. Vila gets some good stuff to do, and even Soolin is given a rare moment of sharpshooting, but of course it is Avon who spots the trap before it is too late.

Stratford Johns, a really well-known actor, is mad scientist Belkov here but was also Monarch, the leader of the alien Urbankans, in the Fifth Doctor story Four to Doomsday.

And David Neal, who is Gerren here, plays the ill-fated President in the last Fifth Doctor story, Caves of Androzani, but without a beard.

Dialogue triumph:

Guard: Four of our men have been killed with a knife like that.
Vila: You don’t think – I mean, I’m not the violent type, really I’m not.
Guard: Then why do you carry that?
Vila: I found it.
Guard: Where?
Vila: It was stuck in one of your men.

4.9 Sand, written by Tanith Lee, directed by Vivienne Cozens

Tanith Lee, eh? One of the great British SF writers, who left us a couple of years ago, and wrote two of the most ssfnally intersting episodes of Blake’s 7 – last season’s Sarcophagus, and this one now, featuring intelligent, vampiric sand which is able to possess computers such as Orac. Tarrant, most people’s least favourite member of the Seven, gets a decent episode and actually what looks like a romance with Servalan – whose emotional backstory is revealed here, not completely consistent with what we knew of her, but great drama none the less.

A whole festival of Who crossover here with four of the guest cast also having Whoniverse credits. Stephen Yardley, who is Reeve here, was in the classic Fourth Doctor story Genesis of the Daleks as Sevrin the Muto, and in the Sixth Doctor story Vengeance on Varos as Arak, the reality TV fan.

His sidekick Chasgo is played by Daniel Hill, also Chris Parsons in the unshown Fourth Doctor story Shada.

Peter Craze, who plays Servalan’s unnamed assistant, has not only already been on Blake’s 7 before as Prell in the first series episode Seek-Locate-Destroy, he was in three Doctor Who stories – far in the mists of time, he was the young revolutionary Dako in the First Doctor story The Space Museum; he was briefly the French solider Du Pont in the Second Doctor’s final story, The War Games; and security guard Costa in the Fourth Doctor story Nightmare of Eden.

And finally, Jonathan David, who plays the dead scientist Keller, went on to be Stratton in the Sixth Doctor story Attack of the Cybermen:

Dialogue trimphs:

Servalan: Oh, Tarrant. I’m just the girl next door.
Tarrant: If you were the girl next door, I’d move.
Servalan: Where would you move, Tarrant?
Tarrant: Next door?

Orac: I love you.
Vila: Orac!
Orac: My emotions are deeper than the seas of space. One times one is only possible in the ultra-dimensional.
Avon: Turn Orac off.
Orac: I love you.
Avon: Off!
Orac: We will be lovers for a little while, or maybe for a long while, who knows?
Soolin: I do. (Turns Orac off)

4.10 Gold, written by Colin Davis, directed by Brian Lighthill

I have to say that I felt this was the last unsatisfactory episode of Blake’s 7. (And I am consious that most fans seem to like it more than I did.) It’s a story of a heist, which seems to run up against just enough obstacles to create plot points; and at the end of it, Avon inexplicably lets Servalan win. It is lifted very much by Roy Kinnear as Avon’s untrustworthy ally, though I always see him as George’s friend Jerry in George and Mildred.

The only Doctor Who crossover here, noted for the record, is Norman Hartley, unseen as the voice of the pilot, but visible in two black-and-white Doctor Who stories, the First Doctor’s The Time Meddler as Viking warrior Ulf, and the Second Doctor’s The Invasion as Sergeant Peters. But I don’t think we see him here (unless I missed him in a crowd scene) and so I won’t inflict photos on you.

Dialogue disaster:

Tarrant: We’ve just risked our lives, for nothing.
Soolin: Not for nothing, Tarrant. We risked our lives… to make Servalan rich!
Avon: (laughs manically)

4.11 Orbit, written by Robert Holmes, directed by Brian Lighthill

This is one of Robert Holmes’ later scripts, and one of his best ones. Holmes’ trademark is to have two guest actors establishing the situation by the conversation between the two characters; here he excels with the two scientists Egrorian and Pinder, whose relationship with each other is clearly unhealthy and whose relationship with Servalan is even more creepy.

But what this episode is rightly remembered for is the five-minute sequence where Avon decides to kill Vila to achieve orbit by jettisoning his weight, and then changes his mind when he realises that there is a fragment of plotdevicium on the shuttle that he can get rid of instead. It’s one of the most intense pieces of British sf drama.

John Savident plays the sinister scientist Egrorian here; we’ve already had him as the presiding officer in the second series episode Trial. He is killed off in the first episode of the Fifth Doctor story The Visitation, where he was the (unnamed) Squire, with a lot more hair.

Dialogue triumph:

Avon: How much more weight must we lose before we can achieve escape velocity?
Orac: Seventy kilos, Avon.
Avon: Only seventy kilos… Vila, strip off the insulation material in the cargo hold. Vila! (hands him something)
Vila: But that’s plastic. It weighs nothing.
Avon: Get rid of it anyway.
Vila: A kilo and a half if we’re lucky.
Avon: Do it! We’ve got five minutes. (Vila leaves) Not enough! Not nearly enough! Dammit, what weighs seventy kilos?
Orac: Vila weighs seventy-three kilos, Avon.

4.12 Warlord, written by Simon Masters, directed by Viktors Ritelis

A weird one this – Avon forming a coalition of strange-looking warlords is strangely reminiscent of the Daleks’ Master Plan…

And the coalition then turns out to have nothing to do with the rest of the plot, which has warlord Zukan in alliance with Servalan (in her last appearance) both double-crossing the Scorpio crew and being himself double-crossed by his own daughter. It’s well done and keeps you watching to the grim end.

Well, I was wrong when I said that Vila and Kerril were the only characters to explicitly have sex in City at the Edge of the World last season, because Tarrant and Zeeona head away from the company at one point and come back looking smug.

Two Doctor Who crossovers here. Roy Boyd, playing main baddie Zukan, has a small part in the Fourth Doctor story The Hand of Fear as nuclear engineer Driscoll, with a lot more hair.

And Rick James, whose performance as Cotton in the Third Doctor story The Mutants is notoriously one of the weakest in the whole of Doctor Who, is a little better here as subsidiary warlond Chalsa with the impressive Jedward-style hair. He was quite a well-known figure in his native Antigua.

4.13 Blake, written by Chris Boucher, directed by Mary Ridge

Well, this is it. I remember 39 years ago today, stunned as the closing titles rolled, wondering what I had just watched. The BBC kills off Blake and the entire crew; it’s one of the bleakest ends to a series that I can think of. And it’s done in style; has Blake gone over to the dark side? We find out that he hasn’t; Avon doesn’t find out in time, and takes his vengeance for a destroyed idealism.

And then they all die.

Even knowing it was coming this time round, I was stunned by the drama of the climax. The biggest disappointment is that Servalan is not there at the end, as she had promised she would be; but who can trust her?

David Collings, here playing Blake’s main accomplice Deva, was in Doctor Who three times, in the Fourth Doctor stories Return of the Cybermen, heavily made up as the Vogan leader Vorus, and The Robots of Death, less heavily made up, as the homicidal Poul; and also heavily made up again as the title character of the Fifth Doctor story Mawdryn Undead.

Not a Who crossover, but it’s interesting to note that Deva’s assistant Klyn is played by Janet Lees-Milne, who was married to Paul Darrow; Avon kills her.

And we’ll leave Paul Darrow with the last word:

It’s been great fun watching Blake’s 7, some episodes again and some for the first time, almost forty years after they were first broadcast. Strongly recommended to any fan of 1970s/1980s TV science fiction. There is lots more to say, but maybe for another time; it’s getting late.

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Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardine Evaristo

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Second section of third chapter:

    she’s wearing a light grey pencil skirt and jacket, powder-blue blouse, grey neck-tie, black patent leather court shoes, and her pride
     as she passes through the formidable doors into the wood-panelled entrance
     wide staircases sweep up either side of the lobby ascending to the upper floors
     long corridors extend in two directions either side of her
     she’s way too early, wanders through the empty school, explores its light-filled classrooms, imagines its essence pouring into her soul, yes, her very soul
     she isn’t going to be a good teacher but a great one
     one who’ll be remembered by generations of working-class children as the person who made them feel capable of achieving anything in life
     a local girl made good, come back to generously pass on

A lot of people may have said “Who?” on hearing that Bernardine Evaristo had won the Man Booker Prize this year, jointly with Margaret Attwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. I did not; some years ago I greatly enjoyed The Emperor’s Babe, a narrative poem about a Sudanese girl in third century London. Girl, Woman, Other is a slightly different kettle of fish, with a huge range of characters across contemporary London (with some flashbacks to earlier decades), almost all women, almost all black, all telling their stories from their own perspective, but often those stories intersect and overlap, and we see the same relationships from different angles. I was preparing myself to write here that it was a very engaging, challenging, fascinating read; and then a twist in the last chapter caught me completely by surprise (though it shouldn’t have) and left me sobbing on the train on the way home from work. This does not happen to me very often. A brilliant book. You can get it here.

This was the top book on my unread pile by a non-white author. Next on that list is The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey.

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May 2004 books

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1 May 2004 was the day of the EU's big bang enlargement, with ten new countries joining to take the total membership from 15 to 25. There was a big celebration in the Cinquantenaire and we all went into Brussels for it (including visitors).

A few days later, I travelled to Zagreb for a meeting with Norwegian diplomats, and then later in the month did a grand Caucasus tour of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, meeting all three presidents and both prime ministers (Georgia did not have a PM at the time), and changing planes in Prague on the way there and back, thus adding three countries to my lifetime list and bringin my total to (I had been to Georgia before). Here President Aliyev tells us what he thought of our new report. (I'm at the far end of the table, on the left.)

We also did an op-ed on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Non-fiction 1 (YTD 16)
Manifesto for a New World Order, by George Monbiot

Non-genre fiction 1 (YTD 4)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon

SF (non-Who) 11 (YTD 32)
Tales of the Dying Earth, by Jack Vance
Wild Seed, by Octavia E. Butler
Shadows over Baker Street, eds. Michael Reaves and John Pelan
Singularity Sky, by Charles Stross
Blind Lake, by Robert Charles Wilson
Light, by M. John Harrison
Irresistible Forces, ed. Catherine Asaro
The Confusion, by Neal Stephenson
Too Long a Sacrifice, by Mildred Downey Broxon
Sacrifice of Fools, by Ian McDonald
Humans, by Robert J. Sawyer

Doctor Who, etc 1 (YTD 1)
Decalog 5: Wonders, eds. Paul Leonard and Jim Mortimore

5,400 pages (YTD 20,400)
3/14 by women (YTD 15/55)
1/14 by PoC YTD 1/55)

(Links above are to my reviews; below, to Amazon.)

Top book of the month for me is Sacrifice of Fools by Ian McDonald, the best SF book ever set in Belfast. You can get it here. I noted at the time that I very much enjoyed Singularity Sky, by Charles Stross, which you can get here, but I can remember much less about it. I'm afraid I bounced off Light, by M.John Harrison, which a lot of people love; but the worst book of the month is Robert Sawyer's execrable Humans. You can get them here and here.


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Tuesday reading

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Current
Wildthyme Beyond!, by Paul Magrs
Being Human: Bad Blood, by James Goss
Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution, by Stephen Zunes

Last books finished
The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas
Hild, by Nicola Griffith
She Was Good-She Was Funny, by David Marusek
My Morning Glory and other flashes of absurd science fiction by David Marusek

Next books
Dragonworld, by Byron Preiss
Being Human: Chasers, by Mark Michalowski

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Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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Second paragraph of third chapter:

Eliza mode! she managed to instruct, feeling queasy, bloated, constipated and overstimulated all at once as the machinery of the coffin laboured to bring her back to something resembling active life.

I thought this was a tremendous book. It combines loads of different SF themes – the starship whose population are mostly in hibernation, and whose society degenerates; a very non-human civilisation; a couple of AIs who find themselves adapting to a new situation (I hate anthropomorphic robots, but these AIs go in a very different direction). On top of that, the plot is intricate and well thought out; and although I did see the ending coming, I wasn’t at all sure I had guessed right until the last coupleof chapters. I will look out for the others in the series. You can get this one here.

This won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2016, the year after I was a judge. The other shortlisted novels were Arcadia, by Iain Pears; The Book of Phoenix, by Nnedi Okorafor; Europe at Midnight, by Dave Hutchinson; The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers; and Way Down Dark, by J. P. Smythe. I’ve read two of those and loved them both, but I think if I had been a judge in 2016 as well, I’d probably have chosen Children of Time ahead of either. I am surprised to note that it got no other nominations.

Of the awards that I particularly track, the other winning novels of that year were The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin (Hugo), Uprooted, by Naomi Novik (Nebula); The House of Shattered Wings, by Aliette de Bodard (BSFA) and Lizard Radio, by Pat Schmatz (Tiptree). I have not read the last of these, but preferred Children of Time to the other four.

This was my top unread book acquired in 2017. Next on that pile is The Last Days of New Paris, by China Miéville.

Arthur C. Clarke Award winners:
The Handmaid’s Tale | The Sea and Summer | Unquenchable Fire | The Child Garden | Take Back Plenty | Synners | Body of Glass | Vurt | Fools | Fairyland | The Calcutta Chromosome | The Sparrow | Dreaming in Smoke | Distraction | Perdido Street Station | Bold as Love | The Separation | Quicksilver | Iron Council | Air | Nova Swing | Black Man | Song of Time | The City & the City | Zoo City | The Testament of Jessie Lamb | Dark Eden | Ancillary Justice | Station Eleven | Children of Time | The Underground Railroad | Dreams Before the Start of Time | Rosewater | The Old Drift | The Animals in that Country | Deep Wheel Orcadia | Venomous Lumpsucker | In Ascension | Annie Bot

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2019 travels

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Every year since 2005, I have posted a list of the cities where I have spent a night away from home in that calendar year. I am just back from a four-city seven-day trip, which I hope is the last of this year, so this should be the final list for 2019. Previous years: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.

This year’s list is as follows (an asterisk marks places where I spent more than one non-consecutive night):

*London, UK
*Zagreb, Croatia
Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
*Rome, Italy
Prishtina, Kosovo
The Hague, the Netherlands
*Washington DC, USA
Nashville TN, USA
*Dublin, Ireland
*Belfast, UK
Little Wymondley, UK
Utrecht, the Netherlands
Bratislava, Slovakia
Senningen, Luxembourg
*Kidderminster, UK
*Loughbrickland, UK
Dordrecht, the Netherlands
Štrbské Pleso, Slovakia
New York NY, USA
Belmont MA, USA
Opio, France
Oxford, UK

That's 23 cities in 11 countries, the same as last year, equal 6th highest of the 15 years I have been counting. Country total for the year is 14, counting also:

Vatican – visited while in Rome
Germany – changed planes
Austria – changed planes

The last couple of years, I've been able to supplement this list with some cool maps. Unfortunately Swarm/Foursquare seems to have discontinued their raw checkin feed, and I can't work out how to grapple with the API to get the information out of it. The chaps at https://www.4sqmap.com/ have done, but I find the grey boxes for checkin points a little sad. Anyway, here's my global map of locations for 2019, if not as jazzed up as I would have preferred.

This is where I've been in Europe:

Here are my travels on two trips to the United States, ranging from Maine to Tennessee:

This is my London, concentrated in the space between St Pancras and Westminster with occasional excursions:

And here's my Brussels, concentrated in the European Quarter and the railway stations, with ventures to the centre and the trendy south of the city.

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Survivants: Anomalies Quantiques, by Leo

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Second frame of third page, vol. 1:


There was panic on board, chaos…I took my fate in my own hands.
I grabbed this shuttle and left – full speed, straight ahead.
Second frame of third page, vol. 2:

Tell me what's up, Pam.
This is a spinoff series from the main narrative of Leo's great graphic novel sequence, Les Mondes d'Aldebaran. A group of teenagers are the only survivors of a starship colonisation mission landing on a strange planet; they must grapple with the native fauna, including several different intelligent species of carying degrees of friendliness. As usual the art is gorgeous, and the characters distinctly depicted. I was particularly grabbed by the storyline, which takes an interesting enough if cliched situation and then applies some extra twists; I really wished I had bought all five volumes and not just the first two.

I read the French original which you can get here and here, but there is also an English translation available here and here.

This was my top unread comic in a language other than English. Next in that pile is the three-volume Auguria by Pieter Nuyten.

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Northern Ireland Westminster results 2019

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First, it seems that I have a new fan (thanks to my old friend Bairbre for alerting me).

Here are the scores on the doors for the third election this year.

Full results:

DUP 8 seats (-2), 30.6% (-5.4%)
SF 7 seats (nc), 22.8% (-6.6%)
Alliance 1 seat (+1), 16.8% (+8.9%)
SDLP 2 seats (+2), 14.9% (+3.2%)
UUP 11.7% (+1.4%)

Comment: The best Westminster result ever for the Alliance Party, echoing the European Parliament result from May. Four seats changed hands: Alliance won North Down, vacated by Sylvia Hermon; Sinn Féin won North Belfast from the DUP; the SDLP won South Belfast from the DUP; and the SDLP also won Foyle from Sinn Féin. For the first time ever, Northern Ireland elected more Nationalists than Unionists. (Though Unionist parties still well ahead in vote share.)

Seats listed below by category (changes, DUP holds, SF holds) and by order of declaration in each category because I am too tired to be more creative. Apologies to candidates who got less than 10%, I will include your names when I update the website. Also giving indicative projection of Westminster result to Assembly election.

The four seats that changed hands

North Down

Stephen Farry (Alliance) 18358 – 45.2% (+35.9%)
Alex Easton (DUP) 15390 – 37.9% (-0.2%)
Alan Chambers (UUP) 4936 – 12.1%
Conservative 1959 – 4.8% (+2.4%)

Alliance had support from the Greens, and also clearly from many who had supported Independent MP Sylvia Hermon in previous elections. I think this is their highest ever vote share in a Westminster election.

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would give Alliance the Greens’ seat (because they did not stand).

North Belfast

John Finucane (SF) 23,078 – 47.1% (+5.4%)
Nigel Dodds (DUP) 21,135 – 43.1% (-3.1%)
Alliance 4,824 – 9.8% (+4.4%)

Nigel Dodds had the fourth highest personal vote tally in Northern Ireland; but John Finucane had the third highest, in the only seat where SF’s vote share increased. The SDLP and UUP both stood down here; despite the squeeze, Alliance managed to increase vote share.

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would probably give Alliance the SDLP seat (the SDLP did not stand).

South Belfast

Claire Hanna (SDLP) 27,079 – 57.2% (31.0%)
Emma Little-Pengelly (DUP) 11,678 – 25.0% (-5.8%)
Paula Bradshaw (Alliance) 6,786 – 14.3% (-4.0%)
UUP 1,259 – 2.7% (-0.8%)
Aontu 550 – 1.2%

Tremendous assemblage of anti-Brexit voters by the SDLP, who were supported by SF and the Greens but clearly drew on a very wide spectrum of voters – this is the only seat where the Alliance vote decreased.

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would probably give the SDLP the seats held by the Greens and SF (who did not stand).

Foyle

Colum Eastwood (SDLP) 26,881 – 57.0% (+17.7%)
Elisha McCallion (SF) 9,771 – 20.7% (-19.0%)
Gary Middleton (DUP) 4,773 – 10.1% (-6.0%)
Aontu 2032 – 4.3%
PBP 1,332 – 2.8% (-0.2%)
Alliance 1,267 – 2.7% (+0.8%)
UUP 1,088 – 2.3%

Extraordinary to see SF vote almost halve compared to 2017. Local elections had indicated slippage here, but not this much. SDLP also clearly ate into Unionist vote.

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would certainly give the SDLP a third Assembly seat, probably at the expense of SF (if DUP able to hang on).

Seats successfully defended by the DUP

Strangford

Jim Shannon (DUP) 17705 – 47.2% (-14.8%)
Kelly Armstrong (Alliance) 10634 – 28.4% (+13.7%)
Philip Smith (UUP) 4023 – 10.7% (-0.7%)
SDLP 1994 – 5.3% (-0.9%)
Con 1476 – 3.9% (+2.6%)
Gr 790 – 2.1% (+0.5%)
SF 555 – 1.5% (-0.9%)
UKIP 308 – 0.8% (-0.6%)

On the face of it, a straight shift of 5,000 votes from the DUP to Alliance (and 1000 to the Conservatives).

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would certainly give Alliance the UUP’s Assembly seat.

East Londonderry

Gregory Campbell (DUP) 15,765 – 40.1% (-8.0%)
Cara Hunter (SDLP) 6,158 – 16.0% (+4.9%)
Dermot Nicholl (SF) 6,128 – 15.6% (-10.9%)
Chris McCaw (Alliance) 5,921 – 15.1% (+8.9%)
UUP 3,599 – 9.2% (+2.0%)
Aontu 1,731 – 4.4%

A three-way jostling for second place, with SDLP, SF and Alliance within 240 votes of each other. Looks again like DUP votes going mostly to Alliance, with SF defectors splitting fairly evenly between SDLP and Aontu.

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would certainly give Alliance the seat held by Claire Sugden (but she did not stand).

East Belfast

Gavin Robinson (DUP) 20,874 – 49.0% (-7.0%)
Naomi Long (Alliance) 19,055 – 44.9% (+8.9%)
UUP 2,516 – 5.9% (+2.6%)

Alliance benefited somewhat from other parties not standing, but also (again) from some direct vote switches from the DUP. I think this is Alliance’s second highest ever vote share in a Westminster election (the highest being Stephen Farry’s total in North Down).

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would certainly give the DUP the UUP’s seat.

East Antrim

Sammy Wilson (DUP) 16,871 – 45.3% (-12.1%)
Danny Donnelly (Alliance) 10,165 – 27.3% (+11.7%)
Steve Aiken (UUP) 5,475 – 15.0% (+3.0%)
SF 2,120 – 6.0% (-3.6%)
Cons 1,043 – 2.8% (nc)
SDLP 902 – 2.4% (-0.9%)
Green 685 – 1.8%

Looks like Alliance drawing votes directly from both DUP and SF here, more from DUP because there were more to draw from.

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would certainly give Alliance one of the UUP’s Assembly seats.

South Antrim

Paul Girvan (DUP) 15,149 – 35.3% (-3.0%)
Danny Kinahan (UUP) 12,460 – 29.0% (-1.8%)
John Blair (Alliance) 8,190 – 19.1% (+12.0%)
Declan Kearney (SF) 4,887 – 11.4% (-6.7%)
SDLP 2,288 – 5.3% (-0.1%)

Again, Alliance making big gains, but unusually more from SF than from Unionists. One of only three seats where UUP have finished ahead of Alliance.

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would probably give the UUP the SF seat, depending on SDLP and Alliance transfers.

Lagan Valley

Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP) 19,586 – 43.1% (-16.4%)
Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance) 13,087 – 28.8% (+17.7%)
Robbie Butler (UUP) 8,606 – 19.0% (+2.2%)
SDLP 1,758 – 3.9% (-3.7%)
SF 1,098 – 2.4% (-1.1%)
Cons 955 – 2.1% (+1.1%)
UKIP 315 – 0.7%

Again, large increase in Alliance vote that appears to have come mostly from DUP but also from the Nationalist parties.

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would probably give Alliance a second seat at the expense of the SDLP.

Upper Bann

Carla Lockhart (DUP) 20,501 – 41.0% (-2.6%)
John O’Dowd (SF) 12,291 – 24.6% (-3.4%)
Eóin Tennyson (Alliance) 6,433 – 12.9% (+8.3%)
Doug Beattie (UUP) 6,197 – 12.4% (-3.0%)
SDLP 4,623 – 9.2% (+0.7%)

Carla Lockhart successfully defended the seat previously held by David Campbell. Again an Alliance increase which seems to have come from both sides.

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would make the SDLP and probably also the UUP seats untenable, with likely winners SF or Alliance, and the DUP, respectively.

North Antrim

Ian Paisley (DUP) 20,860 – 47.4% (-11.5%)
Robin Swann (UUP) 8,139 – 18.5% (+11.3%)
Patricia O’Lynn (Alliance) 6,231 – 14.1% (+8.5%)
Cara McShane (SF) 5,632 – 12.8% (-3.5%)
SDLP 2,943 – 6.7% (+1.4%)
Ind 246 – 0.6%

The TUV, who got 7% in 2017, stood down here in favour of the DUP, but looking at those numbers it seems more likely that their votes favoured the UUP, with DUP votes also going to Alliance here as elsewhere. Another seat where the UUP did better than Alliance.

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would certainly give Alliance the seat held by the TUV (but they did not stand).

Seats successfully defended by SF

West Tyrone

Órfhlaith Begley (SF) 16,544 – 40.2% (-10.6%)
Thomas Buchanan (DUP) 9,066 – 22.0% (-4.9%)
Daniel McCrossan (SDLP) 7,330 – 17.8% (+4.8%)
Alliance 3,979 – 9.7% (+7.4%)
UUP 2,774 – 6.7% (+1.6%)
Aontu 972 – 2.4%
Green 521 – 1.3% (+0.3%)

SF votes seem to have gone roughly half to SDLP and a quarter to each of Alliance and Aontu, with Alliance also picking up from the DUP.

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would make the third SF seat untenable, with the DUP or possibly Alliance benefiting.

West Belfast

Paul Maskey (SF) 20,866 – 53.8% (-12.9%)
Gerry Carroll (PBP) 6,194 – 16.0% (+5.8%)
Frank McCoubrey (DUP) 5,220 – 13.5% (nc)
SDLP 2,985 – 7.7% (+0.7%)
Alliance 1,882 – 4.9% (+3.1%)
Aontu 1,635 – 4.2%

PBP and to a lesser extent Alliance picking up some votes from SF in what is still their strongest seat.

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would make the fourth SF seat untenable, with the DUP the most likely beneficiary.

Mid Ulster

Francie Molloy (SF) 20,473 – 45.9% (-8.6%)
Keith Buchanan (DUP) 10,936 – 25.0% (-2.4%)
Denise Johnston (SDLP) 6,384 – 14.3% (+5.0%)
Alliance 3,526 – 7.9% (+5.6%)
UUP 2,611 – 5.9% (-0.6%)
Independent 690 – 1.5%

SF votes going slightly more to SDLP than Alliance, but Alliance also picking up from Unionists.

Projected to an Assembly election, uniquely among the 18 constituencies, these votes would probably recreate the status quo (3 SF, 1 DUP, 1 SDLP).

South Down

SF 16,137 – 32.4% (-8.0%)
SDLP 14,517 – 29.0% (-6.0%)
DUP 7,619 – 15.3% (-2.0%)
Alliance 6,916 – 13.9% (+10.3%)
UUP 3,307 – 6.6% (+2.7%)
Aontu 1,266 – 2.5%

Aontu eating a little into the Nationalist vote, but Alliance eating into it rather more, with the UUP picking up from the DUP.

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would give Alliance a chance of picking up one of the SDLP seats.

Newry and Armagh

Mickey Brady (SF) 20,287 – 40.0% (-8.0%)
William Irwin (DUP) 11,000 – 21.7% (-2.9%)
Pete Byrne (SDLP) 9,449 – 18.6% (+1.7%)
Alliance 4,211 – 8.3% (+5.9%)
UUP 4,204 – 8.3% (nc)
Aontu 1,628 – 3.2%

SF votes going to Aontu, Alliance and the SDLP in that order, with Alliance also picking up from the DUP.

Projected to an Assembly election, these votes would make the third SF seat untenable, with Alliance or the UUP (or a very lucky second DUP candidate) benefiting.

Fermanagh and South Tyrone

Michelle Gildernew (SF) 21986 – 43.3% (-3.9%)
Tom Elliott (UUP) 21929 – 43.2% (-2.3%)
SDLP 3446 – 6.8% (+2.0%)
Alliance 2650 – 5.2% (+3.5%)
Ind 751 – 1.5%

A massive two-party squeeze normally means those in the middle losing votes, but here the opposite applied, with the SDLP gaining from SF and Alliance gaining from both SF and the UUP. In the end the squeeze was not quite enough for the UUP to regain the seat, their best shot of the day, and SF held it by a mere 57 votes.

Projected to an Assembly election, there is no DUP candidate so the UUP would win that seat; if the SDLP are lucky with Alliance transfers and SF balancing, they would gain one of SF’s three seats.

I will have to think about what this all means.

Picture taken late last night by Mark Devenport:

The next election due in Northern Ireland is an Assembly election scheduled for 2022; but I would not be at all surprised if it happened earlier.

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