Dear friends, family and colleagues, I’m sure I’m breaching copyright something rotten, but for our (much-later-than-usual) 2020 Christmas/New Year letter, the Telegraph’s Matt pretty much nailed it. So not having left our home in Sheringham since March except for a couple of dashes to London to grandson Leo and his parents Chris and Lena (now … Read more …
Misc

Being Aspergers, Part the Second
I probably don’t need to write this follow-up to my blog of March this year on being diagnosed, at 70, at last and rather late in life, with Aspergers aka High-Functioning Autism. Indeed, just thinking about starting this piece reminds me just how difficult I’ve always found writing to be, whether agonising over a poem or short … Read more …

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 … Read more …

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 … Read more …

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 … Read more …
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 … Read more …

Therapy Today on Climate Change
The following is an article Mark Brayne contributed to the BACP’s Therapy Today, December 2007 Headline in the Guardian Nov 20, 2007: “We’re the only species on the planet ever to document our own extinction.” As therapist to therapist, let me get straight to the point. I need some help with a couple of clients. … Read more …
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 … Read more …

Braynes’ Tandem Tour of Aotearoa New Zealand – Jutta’s final stoker view looking back
As we watch the South Island fade into the distance, swaying with the Bluebridge ferry’s wave-riding, my thoughts float back over our rich, smooth and eventful 2900-kilometre tandem journey the length of New Zealand from the very North to the very South, with thanks to the Weather Gods and what must be a chorus of … Read more …

TandemTA Tour of Aotearoa/New Zealand officially over, with 2900km on the clock
So this looks like being Mark’s last post (Jutta’s is still to come) from our Tandem Tour Aotearoa of New Zealand, with warm thanks to those who’ve followed our progress these past six and a bit weeks, a most rewarding 2900 kilometres from Cape Reinga in the far North to Bluff in the far South. … Read more …