Category Archives: Blog

Stonyhurst Memories

Stonyhurst Memories by Jimmy Burns   Here follows some further Stonyhurst memories of my own prompted by my contemporary John Mulholland and his thoughtful memoir Ferulas and Thuribles– “Although we were all in it together, each individual journey was different.”     World Cup 1966 -my first year at Stonyhurst.   As I write in one of my football books , La Premier League ( published last year in Spanish , English version  due out towards  the end of this year)  I was  in London and recall going to the  Royal …

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In Memory of the simpatico Terry  Venables

  The former England, Barcelona and Tottenham manager has died aged 80.   I owe to the personable Terry Venables some memorable times together during which his  colourful  insights  provided me with the material for two books of mine that came to be enjoyed by fans  around the world-The Hand of God and Barca. It was Venables that told me how he resigned himself to losing Diego Maradona from his squad soon after taking over the management of FC Barcelona in May 1984. While there had been speculation that  Maradona …

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Mick Jagger at El Clasico

Heading towards Barco Latino , a tapas joint permanently anchored along   London’s Temple Pier , for the live broadcast coverage of the FC Barcelona-Real Madrid on Saturday afternoon, I had to navigate my way through a large pro-Palestine and pro-ceasefire demonstration on both sides of the Embankment. An estimated 100,000  spending their weekend passionately taking sides on  an issue of life and death, contrasting with my own indulgent escape into the world of sport, troubled my conscience  and somewhat defused any excitement I felt about the upcoming football match . …

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British intelligence in twilight of Empire

The subject of my new book A Faithful Spy  , the late MI6 and MI5 officer Walter Bell  was  at the heart of the US/UK WW2  and Cold War intel relationship. His hitherto undisclosed   private papers , on which the book draws , also covers his  posting to Kenya 1949-1952 , to Delhi in 1952-57, West Indies in 1958-1960 , Kenya again in 1961-1967 where he was involved  operationally,  as British intelligence monitored soviet influence on anti-colonial leaders and played a crucial role in  the passing of political power while …

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A Faithful Spy

  I am delighted that my latest book A Faithful Spy ,on the life and times of MI6 and MI5 officer  Walter Bell is being published this autumn . (published by Chisebury October 1 , available in bookshops and amazon.) When Bell died in January 2004, aged ninety-four, the details of his life – not least of his professional career in the British secret services during a defining period in the history of modern espionage and security – remained a well-kept secret. He had been decorated with the US Medal …

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Race & Spanish Football

  I struggle to find any justified excuse for the abuse suffered  by the Real Madrid star Vinicius junior and the way in which a certain high-up in the Spanish La Liga has reacted. The racist nature of chants  by a large group of local fans suffered by  the young Brazilian during  Real Madrid’s  game against Valencia last Sunday  was only too evident. So was the emotional impact it had on the player who was red carded by the referee after being caught up in a tussle provoked by a …

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Good Friday Agreement remembered

A Personal Memory by Jimmy Burns   The author, who covered Northern Ireland during the 1990’s as a journalist  with the FT ,  remembers the key final stages of the peace process that led to the historic deal.   With the approach of the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Good Friday agreement, and what promises to be a make or break in terms of the latest attempt to settle stormy waters in the province with a planned visit by President Biden later this month (April), personal memories flood back of  …

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Spook Turf Wars

Review by Jimmy Burns of ‘Need to Know’ , World War 11 and the rise of American intelligence by Nicholas Reynolds (Mariner Books) Blame Ian Fleming but my generation of fellow British  public-school boys – privileged private educated friends,  some of whom went on to enter the secret world after being born in the early stages of the Cold War -developed our early perception of US intelligence through the prism of James Bond’s alliance with his CIA buddy the similarly fictitious Felix Leiter. The Texan Leiter ,as dramatised  by different …

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Johnson’s nadir

  Even for Boris Johnson, someone who for most of  his  adult life has set honesty  at a pretty  low standard, the taking of an oath must  have given him some pause for reflection. As he swore , live and streamed, on the bible to speak the truth and nothing but the truth before his l parliamentary inquisitors, one got a sense that the stage was set for a reckoning. Johnson may have made a habit as a journalist and prime minister with playing fast and loose with the facts, …

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Humanising Asylum Policy

  I am indebted to Tim Fetherston for a reminder that in this conflictive,  confrontational politics of today we need  to retain a sense of moral duty of care for the vulnerable.   Fetherston  is a volunteer medicolegal doctor from the Northeast if England  with Freedom from Torture,  a UK charity which, since its formation in 1985, has provided support for more than 50,000 victims of torture who have fled to the UK for asylum. This support ,Fetherston tells us, “takes  the form of psychological therapy, social assistance and advice, …

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