Bristol
History
Heritage Tourism
Fiction
About
Contact
Friends,
acquaintances, colleagues:
The Animal Disco
Cheryl
Morgan
Claude Lalumiere
Cllr
Smedley
Cris!
Darryl Bullock
Emerald City
John
Jarrold
Julian
Owen
Justin
Quinnell
Joyce's Ireland
Kim Newman
Neil Gaiman
Pádraig
Ó Méalóid
Paul
J. McAuley
The Ship's
Cook
Si Gurr
Things
that Never Were
What of it?
Will
Hatchett
Other stuff I'm invovled in
Darwin 200
Brunel 200
Days
Out West
Newman
& Byrne
Messed-Up History Experience (a bit dated)
GRA 2008!!
St Vincent's Rock
Virtual
Venue
Bristol
Andy
Bennett (Police)
BBC
Bristol
Badnewswade
The Big Issue Man
Bristol
Blogger
Bristol
Media
Bristol Radical History Group
Bristol
Respect Coalition (Lefties)
Bristol
Street Art
Bristol Traffic
Bristle’s
Blog from the BunKRS
Charlie
Bolton (Green)
Derek
Robinson
Digital Bristol
Evening
Post
Gert
Lush Online (awesome)
Green Bristol Blog
James
Barlow (Tory)
Kerry
McCarthy (Labour)
LJS
Trust
Oblong Scone (whimsy)
People's
Republic of Stokes Croft
That be
Bristle
Trym Tales
Western
Daily Press
The usual self-aggrandising bollocks about how interesting and clever I am. About half of it's true.
Full
name: Eugene Byrne
Place and Date of birth:
British Isles, twentieth century.
Nationality:
Irish in law, English in domicile since emigrating at the age of six weeks.
Religion:
Agnostic fundamentalist. Seriously. We can talk about this if you like. A pox on God-botherers and pedantic slaves of scientism alike.
Education:
Dr Morgan's Grammar School for Boys, Bridgwater, Somerset, which turned into Haygrove Comprehensive when I was still there. Can't see newsreel footage of the Liberation of Paris in 1944 without thinking of the change-over. Studied History & Politics at University of Lancaster.
Domestic Arrangements:
None of your business.
Normal place of residence:
The city and county of Bristol, England.
Why there?
Everybody's got to be somewhere. Bristol's great. Not too big, not too small, history with the right mix of heroism, greed and depravity. What's not to like?
Some favourite books:
Allan Gurganus: Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
Laurence Sterne: The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy
Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White
Walter Macken: Island of the Great Yellow Ox
Leo Marks: Between Silk & Cyanide
Hugh Leonard: Home Before Night
Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon
Charles Palliser: The Quincunx
Alan Moore/David Lloyd: V for Vendetta
John Cowper Powys: A Glastonbury Romance
And everything Flann O'Brien ever wrote
History books are a separate list, of course.
Some favourite films:
The Lives of Others
Chinatown
The Right Stuff
Distant Voices, Still Lives
A Canterbury Tale
Dunkirk
The Battle of the River Plate
Edgar Reitz' 'Heimat' series (esp. Heimat 2)
Last Tango in Paris
Un Homme et Une Femme
Barton Fink
His Girl Friday
Some favourite musicians:
G. F. Handel, Johnny Mercer, Jazzanova, some Stereolab, Roy Ayers, Joni Mitchell, The Kinks, Ian Dury, Christy Moore and Becker & Fagen until they developed a frankly creepy obsession with teenage girls. But the daddy of them all is Ravel: "Contempler à loisir des paysages peints sur des étoffes en des cadres de sapin ... " Nice.
Hero(in)es
Flann O'Brien, Barbara Tuchman, Tom Wolfe, George Orwell, Studs Terkel, George McDonald Fraser, and Gitta Sereny, possibly the greatest forensic interviewer who ever lived.
If the house was burning down you'd rescue ... ?
My 1864 edition of the Chambers Book of Days. Although I'd probably be under some pressure to get the guinea pigs or one of the children instead. I'd probably pick the fourth child. Girl I think. Can never remember her name. Looks a bit like a tomato.
If you were on a desert island, which luxury would you choose to take with you?
A Short Sunderland or PBY Catalina flying boat. With petrol and an aeroplane-driver and everything.
Pet hates:
Urban four-wheel drives, sticky plastic labels on apples and educated people who claim that popular music or football are in some way important. Bread and circuses people, bread and bloody circuses.
Pet loves:
Kippers, flying boats, psychlogical warfare and the life and times of the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould. And paintings of arrogant toffs by John Singer Sargeant, like ce grand diable de milord Anglais.
Guilty pleasures:
Modern disco music aimed at office ladies, illustrated books about WW2 military hardware, the films of Eric Rohmer, swearing in German.
Center Parcs or Butlins?
Neither. Can't I go to prison instead?
What would you like carved on the stone?
"Don't worry. Nothing can possibly go wrong."
What do you actually do anyway?
As little as possible. Consulting Editor of Venue mag, the occasional novel, history in comic form whenever I get the chance. Freelancing on history, heritage tourism and west country news and issues for newspapers and magazines. Have contributed to every paper in me time except The Sun. Weddings and other functions catered for. Contact us now (email from up there on the left) for details of our highly competitive rates.