Reporting the Cold War for Reuters & BBC

It was tremendous fun discussing with Ian Sanders of Cold War Conversations my years first as student in East Germany and the Soviet Union in 1971/72, and then covering the communist world for the next 20 years for Reuters and the BBC. Click the screenshots below for the recordings – first covering my student days […]

Aspergers, Part 1

I’m not quite sure how this post will unfold, other than to know that a) like my despatches from Beijing or the Cold War’s diplomatic frontline it will probably be too long, and that b) some old BBC friends and colleagues may already be sighing, “Oh dear, there he goes again.” Prompted by Fergal Keane […]

Musings on Russia, 45 years on.

To say that Russia and the ex-Soviet space is complicated (think war journalist Arkady Babchenko, whose back-from-the-dead story unfolded during our spring 2018 trip here) is something of an understatement. As we’ve travelled (not by bike this time), we’ve of course been aware and on occasion reminded of unpleasant undercurrents that remain, both Soviet and […]

BBC Response to my Complaint over Humphrys Today interview with Blair on Brexit

Rather than posting the full story on Facebook, here’s the concluding exchange BBC’s response to my complaint last month over John Humphrys’ interview with Tony Blair over Brexit. First their response, then my response to their response, then my original (3rd in this series) complaint. 9 February 2018 Dear Mr Brayne, Today, Radio 4, 4 […]

Brexit and memories of divorces personal and political

Three thoughts – one positive, one neutral and one apocalyptic – as Jutta and I prepare for a month’s tandeming through Central Europe from the Baltics to Bavaria. To start with apocalypse (but please read on for two alternative views), listening to Farage and his kind I’m afraid I can’t help thinking of the late 1980s […]

Tour Aotearea – 3000km the length of New Zealand, Feb/March 2015

Nearly 40 years after receiving our first tandem for our wedding in March 1977, we’re taking our heavyweight long-distance tourer Daisy2 to NZ/Aotearoa to cycle from Cape Reinga at the top of North Island to Bluff at the bottom of South Island. We’re raising funds for the wonderful Rory Peck Trust, uniquely dedicated as it says […]

On Anglo-German Reunification and Reconciliation

A hundred years from the start of World War One, I’ve finally found the peg I’ve been seeking on which to hang my first Braynework blog post in nearly a year. It’s been the most extraordinary year, in which I left Cirencester and my former partner Sue, sold the beloved Wychcroft home which we bought in 2003, moved […]

Brompton folding bike in New York snow mercy wine-dash

Wonderful fellow-Brompton-folding-bike-owner’s email today from my old Dart Centre friend and colleague in snowed-in New York Bruce Shapiro. Bruce’s Brompton top left. New York top right. “Mark – I have one more reason to be grateful for your introducing me to Brompton bikes all those years ago: As you probably know we were hit by a […]

Climate Change and the Failure of Today’s Journalism

(Cross-posted with kind permission of Greenpeace Energy Desk) What was the most important angle in the news coverage of Superstorm Sandy? Was it – should it have been – the storm’s impact on the US presidential elections a week later? Was it the number of human deaths – the usual measure of newsworthiness – or […]

One month to go, and thanks for generous donations…

One month tomorrow, Wednesday April 4th, the journey begins – reminding me of setting off four years ago this month on my so far longest, 4000-mile, round trip to Budapest, and of the nervous thrill of the first day’s journey across (picture l.) Salisbury Plain with its unexploded bombs. “Danger – do not leave the […]