The Georgian crisis deepens

Georgia’s increasingly authoritarian and pro-Russian government has made a major miscalculation.  Protests against the fraudulent elections on 26 October were showing signs of dying down.  When the Georgian Parliament met — with all the opposition…

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Review: Sweetpea, by C.J. Skuse

I’m almost embarrassed to say how much I enjoyed this book. The best way to describe it is that it’s an updated version of American Psycho set in England of today, with a young female…


Review: Prequel, by Rachel Maddow

I used to think that the only really good books about the right-wing, antisemitic, isolationist and racist mass movements in the United States during the 1930s and early 1940s were John Roy Carlson’s “Under Cover”…


Georgia’s democratic future depends on us

More than three weeks have passed since the elections in Georgia and the dust has not yet settled. Though the election results, which showed a clear majority for the pro-Russian ruling party, have now been…


Review: The Wehrwolf, by Alma Katsu

Alma Katsu writes horror as well as espionage thrillers, and this one started with a really good premise: imagine if the Nazis with their “Werwolf” resistance movement at the end of the Second World War…




The first “MAGA movement”

On the eve of the Second World War, the American journalist John Roy Carlson infiltrated a large number of pro-fascist organisations across the country.  The book he wrote, Under Cover, was a best-seller.  The inside…


Review: The Vanishing Man, by Alma Katsu

This very short novella is available on Amazon Kindle for free — apparently one doesn’t buy the book, but “borrow” it. What a great idea. It’s the first part of a trilogy of short fiction…