Book News Round-up

Diary About the Armenian Genocide in Animation

A hundred years have passed since the ‘Armenian Genocide’ took place in 1915. As further proof of the atrocities committed at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, the BBC’s Rengin Arslan and Khashayar Joneidi have uncovered a very important witness in Istanbul: the diary and writings of contemporary Iranian author Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh.

According to the report, Jamalzadeh, was one of several Iranian nationalists working in Ottoman-controlled Baghdad at the time. It was World War I and as the British approached Baghdad, Jamalzadeh decided to leave Baghdad and head to Istanbul. It was on the way there that he witnessed the atrocities he later described as ‘brutal and shocking’ towards the Armenians.

According to the BBC, Jamalzadeh’s diary remains one of the most important accounts of what happened particularly that it was penned by someone not directly involved in the conflict as most recordings and writings in existence are of surviving Armenian relatives.

The animation is by Morteza Rakhtaala. You can see it HERE.

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Brush Up On Middle East Politics

This found its way to my desk over the weekend:

‘A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle that Shaped the Middle East’ by James Barr is one I am really looking forward to reading in the next few weeks.

Published in the UK in 2011, James Barr uses recently declassified papers from the British and French archives and depicts the covert, deadly war of intrigue and espionage between Britain and France to rule the Middle East.

James Barr has worked for the Daily Telegraph, in politics and in the City, and has travelled widely in the Middle East. During the research of the book he was a visiting fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford. Barr is the author of ‘Setting the Desert on Fire: a history of T.E. Lawrence and the secret war in Arabia’.

What's on the back cover:
In 1916 two men secretly agreed to divide the Middle East between them. Sir Mark Sykes was a visionary politican; François Georges-Picot as diplomat with a grudge. They drew a line in the sand from the Mediterranean to the Persian frontier, and together remade the map of the Middle East, with Britain’s ‘mandates’ of Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq, and France’s in Lebanon and Syria.

Over the next thirty years a sordid tale of violence and clandestine political manoeuvring unfolded, told here through a stellar cast of politicians, diplomats, spies and soldiers, including T.E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle.

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Here We Go Again: ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Back in the Headlines!

Official film poster for the film

By now you’ve probably read the books, watched the film so now prepare to hear incessant news about the upcoming film sequel that’s being lined up for the screen.

According to Stuff.co.nz the writing of the sequel ‘Fifty Shades Darker’ will be done co-jointly between author EL James and her husband, Niall Leonard, who is an author and screenwriter whose credits include the television shows Monarch of the Glen and Wire in the Blood and the crime fiction books Crusher.

Why is this even news? Because it has been reported that EL James has gathered up a reputation for being quite the control freak wanting to write the screenplay to the movies herself. She might have figured that it’s OK if it’s husband doing the co-writing, although it’s possible she’ll still have her way yet with hubby on the job.

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