2 home runs out of two with your video "experiment." Notwithstanding John's obvious extraordinary ability as a linguist, researcher and narrative architect - his build-up to and retelling of the Conoco gas plant story was a personal highlight. His Crimea-top-down-Donbass-ground-up comparison reminded me of the guys in clean combat fatigues wearing shooting-sunglasses, carrying rifle-cases on the Moscow Metro in 2014... usually alone and just passing through.... and how that reminded me of reporter friends emphasising the $ in Syria's war.. which reminded me of friends in Croatia telling war-time frontline-deal stories and then to home: Ireland, territory, nationalism, the republican movement's reliance on cross-border "trade" to generate cash, and indeed the subsequent wider slide (as elsewhere in Western Europe) of that identity politics into a harder, rightist, rump.
In short, Lily, work that is fascinating, worthy and of unusual quality. (Any time there's a "From what we can tell from letters...." you know you're in NewBooksNetwork territory.)
Truth: the skeptic in me detected pauses in John's storytelling at junctures where I felt he kinda stared into the "off-message abyss," though perhaps that particular sensitivity was piqued by his fascinating (and imho fundamentally important) account of how an Africa book eventually found its place on the geopolitics middle aisle (top shelf!);). I will buy the book, I congratulate John, and thank you.
2 home runs out of two with your video "experiment." Notwithstanding John's obvious extraordinary ability as a linguist, researcher and narrative architect - his build-up to and retelling of the Conoco gas plant story was a personal highlight. His Crimea-top-down-Donbass-ground-up comparison reminded me of the guys in clean combat fatigues wearing shooting-sunglasses, carrying rifle-cases on the Moscow Metro in 2014... usually alone and just passing through.... and how that reminded me of reporter friends emphasising the $ in Syria's war.. which reminded me of friends in Croatia telling war-time frontline-deal stories and then to home: Ireland, territory, nationalism, the republican movement's reliance on cross-border "trade" to generate cash, and indeed the subsequent wider slide (as elsewhere in Western Europe) of that identity politics into a harder, rightist, rump.
In short, Lily, work that is fascinating, worthy and of unusual quality. (Any time there's a "From what we can tell from letters...." you know you're in NewBooksNetwork territory.)
Truth: the skeptic in me detected pauses in John's storytelling at junctures where I felt he kinda stared into the "off-message abyss," though perhaps that particular sensitivity was piqued by his fascinating (and imho fundamentally important) account of how an Africa book eventually found its place on the geopolitics middle aisle (top shelf!);). I will buy the book, I congratulate John, and thank you.
Happy new year.
Thank you so much for that detailed, extremely helpful comment. I will try to deliver more interesting interviews in 2026! HNY to you too!
really enjoyed this and the previous interview, looking forward to more in the new year if that's a format you plan on sticking with, thanks
extremely grateful for this feedback, thank you! i will stick with it in 2026.. much more to come!