Tonight on BBC 2

Victory and Defeat

Thomas Asbridge in pensive mood

Episode 3 of 3

DURATION: at least 59 MINUTES

In the concluding episode of this acclaimed three-part series, Dr Thomas Asbridge (Cantab.) reveals that the outcome of these epic holy wars was decided not as previously supposed, on the hallowed playing fields of Eton, but in Egypt. As trade blossomed between Christians and Muslims and the Mongol hordes arrived from Asia, a saintly French king - afire with crusading zeal - and the most remarkable Muslim leader of the Middle Ages (Morgan Freeman?) fought for ultimate victory in the East. The stakes were high, very high. Nothing less than ultimate victory in the East.

Drawing upon eyewitness chronicles and the latest archaeological evidence, Dr Asbridge argues that it was a fearsome slave-warrior from the Russian Steppes - now forgotten in the West - who finally sealed the fate of the crusades. And, most controversially of all, Asbridge challenges the popular misconception that the medieval crusades sparked a clash of civilisations between Islam and the West that continues to this day. 

But surely if it is a popular misconcepton, there's nothing very controversial in challenging it? 

Tonight on BBC 1

Prisoners' Wives, Tonight 9pm
Behind every prisoner, there's a woman doing time on the outside - it's time to tell their story.

Sounds a bit sexist to me. Surely some prisoners are women? Or are we to infer that in such cases men can't be bothered to wait for them?

Fill in the Gaps

Some time ago, I think it must have been last year, I read a very interesting book called Every Other Day or something like that. I can't remember who it was written by. It wasn't Julian Barnes or Martin Amis, but somebody of that ilk. I do know that the book was adapted for either the cinema or TV and starred a well-known actor whose name escapes me but who has featured in several well-known costume dramas derived from the works of Charles Dickens: Little Dorrit? Big Jim?
Anyway, the book traces the life of a man born in the early years of the 20th century. His name wasn't Marcus or Theodore but it was something like that. Along the way he married somebody called Stella, or was that the name of their daughter? A great book forever etched in my mind.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

I have recently seen, in less than perfect conditions, the latest film adaptation of a John Le Carré book, and once again I came away disappointed. In my humble opinion, no Le Carré book has transferred successfully to the wide screen, with the possible exception of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (which I haven't seen) and The Tailor of Panama (which is more in the nature of a comedy).

Why is this? I think it is because his books are, when you come to think of it, short on action and long on atmosphere, description and dialogue, and this is not an easy mixture to translate to the cinema. In my view, the ideal format for Le Carré is the television series. Here, a talented director and gifted actors have the space and time to create the peculiar Le Carré world of betrayal and remorse. Television is often dismissed as the cinema's poor relation but its record in adapting classic works of literature - and I think we can include the Smiley books in their number - is often superior.

I also think Gary Oldman is too tall to play the part of George Smiley!

Impressions IV

The coach trip from Stansted to Wolverhampton took me through Birmingham. The last time I was there was back in the mid-fifties. I have a dim recollection that the buses were dark brown but I must have been mistaken or else they have changed, for they are now decked out in a red and cream livery. That previous visit to Birmingham was arranged by my prep school on the occasion of a "Catholic Fair". I can't remember much about this apart from a brisk trade in Indulgences. Could it really be true that we were asked to fork out good money in return for a few hundred days off purgatory?
It could indeed. I have just found a "Prayer for the Canonization" of Edmund Campion, carrying an indulgence of 300 days. To be redeemed at check-in presumably?

Impressions III

Braintree: the town has changed out of all recognition since my mother died 35 years ago, and my sister and I both thought she would be completely lost today. Have there ever been so many changes in such a short space of time?
Not many signs of recession either here or in Saffron Walden. I won't really believe all this talk of economic hardship until TV studios convening experts to pontificate on the "situation" have to be lit by candles and the participants wear a haggard, unshaven look, especially the men.
But of course it's impossible to judge the state of a nation on the strength of a cursory visit to a well-to-do part of the country. Subject to correction, I would put the beautiful county of Shropshire in the same category; so much more prosperous-looking than the down-at-heel area where I live.

In and around Ditton Priors, Shropshire

Impressions II

I was seated next to a most interesting woman on the Eurostar taking me from Lille to London. Born and brought up in Kenya, she has lived in France for the last seven years, running an "Eco/Etho Research and Education Centre roughly half-way between Dieulefit and Crest in the Dröme department.
http://www.eco-etho-recherche.com/
She is also a keen horserider:
http://horseridingfrance.com/

Many of the people who come to stay or work on her farm are Willing Workers On Organic Farms, another organisation I'd never heard of.
http://wwoof.fr/eng/index.htm

Des Paroles et des Actes

This is the name of a current affairs programme, devoted this evening to François Hollande, candidate (and at the time of writing favourite) for the French presidential elections. I personally am not a great fan of Hollande and still nourish the hope that he will explode in mid air, but at the same time feel I should make a conscious effort to watch the programme. Where news is concerned, I have a nasty tendency to avoid reading about or listening to events/views which unsettle me. For instance, I hate it when Roger Federer loses to Nadal (as he did again today) or when England lose at any sport (as they almost invariably do) and have to steel myself to "face the music".

So I shall be watching Hollande this evening, hoping against hope that Alain Juppé takes him to the cleaners.

Impressions I

I'm writing this post - the first for many a moon - on a FlyBe flight from Birmingham International Airport to Paris CDG. My iPad 1, once the object of admiration and envy, now warrants no more than disdain or indifference. That's a relief really as I can get on with telling you something about my latest trip to England, now drawing to a close. The purpose of my visit was to see my family: my sister and brother-in-law in Braintree, my son and family at Widdington near Saffron Walden and my brother and family at Ditton Priors, near Bridgenorth in Shropshire. I had a lovely time from start to finish but family matters are not really the focus of this blog; at least not at the moment. Perhaps they should be.

I have written before of the unsettling effect of travelling, in particular of returning to one's home country after a prolonged absence. This time the experience was less disquieting than in the past, partly because my activities with the boating community in Saint Jean de Losne have given me the chance to speak and hear English more often than for many a year. And partly because I have in a sense given up the ghost and treat travelling to England as a more or less seamless experience, punctuated only by the need to change languages somewhere along the way, much as your mobile phone switches operators who are pleased to charge you exorbitant roaming fees.
To be continued

Life at the Top

When S&P told me they were hiring I jumped at the chance. Money wasn't a prime consideration as I had already made all the money I could possibly need during my years at FIFA and the IOC, where of course the opportunities for corruption are virtually unlimited. With S&P I was looking for a different kind of challenge - the opportunity to publicly humiliate erstwhile proud nations in conditions of complete impunity. Here at S&P you don't have to be particularly bright but we do insist on complete personal integrity. All senior managers must be American citizens. We are often accused of bias but I cannot emphasise too strondly that our ratings are established on a completely random basis, via the same system used to telling effect by the National Lottery.

Linda Ronstadt

Here is a very catchy little song by the great Linda Ronstadt. You might get a bit tired of it after a while, but I think it's rather nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA27GBr306E

And here's a beautiful song she sang for the film The Secret Garden.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuVhHyTcT_o&feature=related

Winter Scenes in the Jura

This Mighty Horse...

... surveys his domain in the Jura mountains.

Football Memories

It is 5 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon at my preparatory school, St Richards, some time in the mid 1950s. Along with one or two other sports-minded boys, I am sitting in our English teacher's room, listening to Sports Report. It is broadcast on the Light Programme and is introduced by Eamonn Andrews. The football results are read out by the peerless John Webster whose wonderful diction and clear delivery, in my opinion, have never been matched.

Why should I be the slightest bit interested in the results, since I know next to nothing about football nor indeed the British Isles, having scarcely ever set foot outside my native East Anglia apart from this school in the Malvern Hills and another one somewhere in Hampshire? And yet I am passionately committed to the fate of certain teams, solely on the basis of the way they SOUND. Two of my favourites are Preston North End and Charlton Athletic. I don't think Charlton is a major club but Preston, with Tom Finney, are one of the great teams of the 'fifties.

When I look back on that long-ago time, I am struck by the extraordinary preponderance of football clubs on either side of the Pennines and, to a lesser degree, in the Midlands and the North-East. They stand as a lasting testimony to the Industrial Revolution, and even today football teams in the effete and prosperous south remain relatively thin on the ground.