 UKRAINE WAR 1842 - during the Great Game against the Russian Empire my father’s great-uncle was taken hostage in the Retreat from Kabul. It is no longer a Great Game but WAR. Hitchhiking to India in 1962‘s cover says: ‘mob threatens John after coup (in 1953) by CIA scared of Soviet Union’.2016 - I wrote: ‘visiting Baltic capitals and St. Petersburg had provided an education into the decayed Soviet Empire and the resurgent new nations.’ 2021 - 23 June, BBC wrote: ‘Today, many of those former territories and allied states, such as Poland and the Baltic states, have joined Nato. So Russia feels surrounded, and that is a dangerous place to be. Yet as dramatic as Wednesday's events appear (HMS Defender off Crimea), this could end up being just a dress rehearsal for a bigger test to come. Read more ... |
 A GARDEN IN LOCKDOWN John Waller writes: In 1982 we bought a derelict house from the estate of Dr. Roles, the founder of the Study Society. In the jungle of a garden was a man meditating. By 2014 the garden was restored and we went on our first world cruise to Japan and China. By 2020 the garden was again in need of much work. In March, returning from our last world cruise, to South America, just the two of us used the lockdown to restore it: my wife Jannie, with one new knee, cannot dig but knows all about flowers; I know nothing about them but have a spade, like my ancestors. Two of our grandchildren, Sean and Jade, cannot fly home to their parents and come to live with us. |
 VIKINGS |
 VIKINGS GO TO CROYDON History says that in 871-872 the Great Heathen Army overwintered only in London.
Four teenagers, all media students, set out to challenge that by telling the story of how the Vikings go to Croydon. Local historian Brian Lancaster did not believe this, but the youngsters, in four short YouTube films titled ‘The Vikings go to Croydon’, prove him wrong.
Have they succeeded? Make up your own mind - see for yourself. |
 IMOGEN |
 FLAMES OF FREEDOM Based on a true story, Irish Flames, when a family on the verge of falling apart finds itself thrown into the maelstrom of war, the cracks begin to tell. Themes of forbidden fruit, political upheaval and duty versus justice come together in Flames of Freedom to tell the tale of the Irish War of Independence from the perspectives not only of the freedom fighters, but also that of Irish born landowners and officers forced to make terrible choices in an absorbing story of love and sacrifice. |
 FLAMES OF FREEDOM |
 FLAMES OF FREEDOM |
 OPERATION AJAX, THE CIA COUP IN IRAN In 1962, nine years after the coup, John Waller, a 22 year-old Cambridge graduate hitch-hiking to India, witnessed the hate of the Tehran ‘crowd’ towards the Americans and the British. His play Operation Ajax, the CIA Coup in Iran, is immensely relevant today as Trump seems to be overturning Obama’s peaceful doctrine towards Iran. It is based on Stephen Kinzer’s book ‘All the Shah’s Men’, which the Washington Post Book World described as “for anyone with more than a passing interest in how the United States got into such a pickle in the Middle East”. Operation Ajax has a further relevance today as many recall the imaginary good times of the Empire. In the early 1950s Britain would have been bankrupt without the revenues from Iranian oil, $300 million per year! Britain’s involvement in the coup increased the hate of the Iranians. |
 VENETIAN CORFU AND EDWARD LEAR’S PAINTINGS In Venetian Corfu and Edward Lear’s Painting we start in Venice, travel through the Corfu Channel and learn about Ottoman invasions, French occupation and a cause of the Cold War. Lear’s Cannon Walk contains 23 locations: the Jewish Quarter, two Venetian forts, Venice like streets, two British palaces and cricket ground, and French arcades. Lear on the Corfu Trail is from Paxos in the south to Corfu’s northern cape where we meet Gerald Durrell. We hear about Democrats and Oligarchs, find where Odysseus landed on Corfu and discuss Global Warming through the changing olive picking season and see the effects of a beach destroyed and tavernas undermined by rising sea. |
 HITCHHIKING TO INDIA IN 1962 India, the Balkans and Greece in 2015 Two Cambridge students hitchhike to India through Tito’s Yugoslavia and Greece, recently under German occupation and then divided by civil war. In Turkey John records the deportation of Armenians to Syria where ISIS is today. In Iran, the CIA coup creates real danger for John. In Amritsar, there is anger over partition, and in Delhi they have tea with Indira Gandhi. John revisits India, discusses the refugee crisis and Syrian Civil War in the Balkans and lives the Greek tragedy. Read more ... “This is a really interesting piece of work, which blends personal anecdote and adventure with the history and politics of the places visited on an epic journey.” – Vince Cable, November 2015 |
 ATLANTIC AFFAIR On Saturday June 14 1930, my Irish father, Otway Waller stayed with his friend and gunrunner, Conor O’Brien, in Foynes, Co. Limerick. Next morning he set sail, along the circumnavigation route taken seven years before by Conor in his yacht Saoirse (Freedom), in his own epic single-handed cruise to the Canary Islands in his 26ft yawl. Returning home on the Yeoward Line s/s Aguila, he fell in love – with my mother. Back in Ireland he had a problem: he was already married with a son, Peter. "An invention by which a yacht may be made to run indefinitely before the wind, with no one at the tiller, has been introduced by an Irish yachtsman. The voyage that Captain Waller made alone in a little 6-ton yawl from his home in Ireland to Las Palmas, a distance of some 1,600 mile, is almost an epic of the sea, while it goes to prove how much hammering a small, well built boat will stand at sea." Tatler, April 21, 1931 ”I thoroughly enjoyed reading Atlantic Affair, the story of one of Ireland’s three greatest yachtsmen.” Now available as an eBook. |
 IRISH FLAMES "In that early summer of 1920 the political storm clouds had gathered around Ireland. The dream of Independence, for which the blood of seven centuries had so often flowed, appeared as elusive and remote as ever. Promises, half promises and innuendoes evaporated, leaving first disillusionment, then bitterness and now open and active hostility … a crowning insult had been inflicted upon a harassed and poverty-stricken Ireland, when English jails provided 'soldiers' considered suitable to deal with the Irish question." "A remarkable account of the end of British rule" - The Irish Post |
 FLAMES OF FREEDOM “It has an immensely resonant and rivetting story to tell … No questioning the calibre and pertinence of the story for a contemporary audience,” – Druid Theatre, Galway |
 FROM IRISH TO AFGHAN |
 IRISH FLAMES The play is based on John Waller’s book Irish Flames – Peter Waller’s true story of the arrival of the Black and Tans, which the Irish Post described as a remarkable account of the end of British rule. It focuses on two developing relationships: between Peter – Robbie in the play – and his older friend Con, who changes from gardener to IRA Volunteer; and Meli, Peter’s English mother, and Martin, the leader of the IRA, who she is in love with and saves when he is injured in an ambush on the Black and Tans. "We were interested to read the adaptation, which is assuredly written. The play offers a powerful comment on wartime violence and retribution." Royal Court |
 YIANNIS BOOKS John Waller sent his first book to 99 agents. 98 said "No"; one said "Self-publish" and Yiannis Books was born. It has published his own books: Greek Walls, An Odyssey in Corfu (2004); Corfu Sunset, Avrio Never Comes (2005); Irish Flames, The Arrival of the Black and Tans (2006); Corfu Sketches, A Thirty-year Journey (2008); Walking the Corfu Trail, With Friends, Flowers and Food (2010); Atlantic Affair (2013); Hitchhiking to India in 1962 (2015). |
 COVID MASK "On 16 August 2020 UK COVID deaths had reached 46,791. For eight consecutive weeks UK deaths had exceeded the sum of the deaths in 12 major EU countries. Three days later the total was 5,325 lower because the government decided that those that died after four weeks would not be included in the statistics! Popular Chancellor Rishi Sunak was photographed serving food to encourage people to take up his meal deal offer. He did not wear a mask as demanded in the COVID rules. In Wimbledon Village a hundred maskless diners ate close together on the pavement. Please download, print and display a poster and share this on social media. |