NickBunker

Pulitzer finalist. Author of EMPIRE ON THE EDGE, YOUNG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN & IN THE SHADOW OF FEAR. @UKLabour. Former chair, Freud Museum. Francophile globalist.

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

With Christmas approaching, here’s my new ⁦book ⁩ « In the Shadow of Fear » on the top shelf at one of my favourite NYC locations: the ⁦@mcnallyjackson⁩ store on Prince Street in SoHo. From ⁦@BasicBooks⁩ & for more info see https://t.co/cQXbcAdpRd

[Kaiser Kuo @KaiserKuo]

Absolutely worth a read — @chinalawtransl8's piece comparing the panic over Japan with the more recent (and ongoing) panic over China. It was, and remains, about the U.S. itself, not the Asian Other.

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

@dylanmatt Not quite. As Russell tells the story in his memoirs, as a boy he dined alone with Gladstone when WEG visited Pembroke Lodge, his grandparents’ home. But the young Russell was too shy to speak, & WEG was silent apart from complaining that he’d been served port in the wrong glass.

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

@BarbaraRich_law Quite. So what happens now to “Chancery Masters”?

[Ryan Hass @ryanl_hass]

1/ Secretary Hegseth said many commendable things in his speech at Shangri-La Dialogue over the weekend. But his speech will be remembered mostly for its lack of self-awareness and for what he did not mention. Here is a brief reaction to it. (Short 🧵).

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

@hal_friederichs @DAMendelsohnNYC Five favourite American authors:
Edgar Allan Poe
Richard Wright
Faulkner
John O’Hara
Norman Mailer

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

@DAMendelsohnNYC You think Monte Carlo is “normal”?

[Josh Glancy @joshglancy]

Considering the state and stakes of geopolitics, it's notable just how parochial and introverted Britain's current political debate has become

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

In the valley of Zaoyuan at Yan’an, China, this afternoon, in the dwelling where Mao Zedong lived from October 1943 to December 1945 visitors pay their respects & leave offerings of fruit juice, biscuits & chocolate. On the bed - cigarettes.

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

@annemcelvoy Oh my gawd…tin hats on, chaps.

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

@RichardHaass @SecWar …when those facts and their setting in Washington & Seoul & Moscow are fully examined, the parallel that @RichardHaass draws here between Taiwan now and S. Korea then actually becomes closer & all the more relevant. 2/

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

@RichardHaass @SecWar The facts of what happened in January 1950 are were more complex than @RichardHaass suggests here (eg it wasn’t just Acheson, but also the US Congress, that appeared to be losing interest in supporting Syngman Rhee). Full story in my book “In the Shadow of Fear” - but 1/

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

@GaryBankhead I know it well. One can walk from here along the SW Coastal Path to Tintagel - a strenuous 16 or 17 miles but worth every inch.

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

…this tree, with its connections to Zhu De, and the air raid shelter where Mao & his colleagues survived Japanese bombing. All as quiet & solitary
as could be while the Yan’an traffic thumped along nearby. 3/

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

On a blazing hot afternoon in Yan’an today I found myself entirely alone in the dwelling where #MaoZedong lived from April 1937 to November 1938, beneath Fenhuangshan (Phoenix Hill) - with his bedroom/office…1/

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

…where Mao wrote “On Contradiction” & “On Protracted War” & much else. In one corner - a bookcase full of Chinese classics, with Zhuangzi & the Confucian Odes easy to spot. And outside - 2/

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

@jenzhuscott https://t.co/lYMbyEAnhm Here’s the place to go - I visited it once, many years ago, while driving back from Glasgow through the beauty of SW Scotland.

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

@dcsandbrook Callaghan? On that subject, as on so many others, I’m with Barbara Castle.

[NickBunker @nbunkerauthor]

@acambridgediary Notorious in my day among my friends at Maggers for the frequent problem of flooding of the loos and bathrooms which were in the basement.