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 ...COMPLIMENT OF THE YEAR!
photo of Ruth Dudley Edwards, author and journalist

I apologise for being so sporadic in keeping up a professional diary that was supposed to show not just the events I was formally speaking at, but work-related events I attend and in which I often participate.

The principal excuse is that from April 9 2008, for almost a year, I was leading a gypsy-like existence commuting to Belfast and Dublin to sit in court at the Omagh trial. I moved house in mid-December so that added to the chaos.

But the trial is over, the judgement has been given and the book is out, so I hope to do better from now on (July 2009). 

MARCH 2010 

09.03.2010:

Glasgow Aye Write! Book Festival:  discussion with Stuart Neville on writing on Ireland and the Troubles

07.03.2010:

Ennis Book Club Festival: ‘Reading History’ symposium:  panellist with Tim Pat Coogan, Diarmuid Ferriter and Eoghan Harris

03.03.2010:

Panelist at Institute of Ideas debate at Graveney School:  ‘Religion and Politics: is faith a force for change or conservatism'
Policy Exchange:  John Creaney Memorial Lecture

FEBRUARY 2010 

23.02.2010:

Intelligence Squared debate: Europe is failing its Muslims

22.02.2010:

With Sean O’Callaghan, speaking to post-graduate war studies students in King’s College, London, about the nature of dissent.

17.02.2010:

Law Society, University College Cork. Opposing the motion: ‘That this House believes that Islam is not a threat to the West’. 
http://donnchacuttriss.blogspot.com/
This helpful blogger has written a fair – if slightly expurgated – account of my debate in Cork on Islam with Dr Azzam Tamimi.  He and I did not get on.

10.02.2010:

Panellist with Claire Fox, Clifford Longley and Kenan Malik on The Moral Maze, 8.00pm BBC Radio 4.

JANUARY 2010 

11.01.2010:

Interview on BBC News 24 about Northern Ireland

DECEMBER 2009 

20.12.2009:

On RTE's Sunday Forum discussing climate change

OCTOBER 2009 

21.10.2009:

Town and Gown, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana: a talk on the aftermath of the Omagh Bombing

17.10.2009:

Bouchercon 2009, Indianapolis:  3.00pm: Participant in the Continuous Conversation with Sophie Hannah and Brendan DuBois

15.10.2009:

Bouchercon 2009, Indianapolis:  4.30pm:  IRISH CRIME IN FACT AND FICTION
A discussion of how the same subject – Ireland – is treated in fiction and in non-fiction, focusing on the constraints and freedoms offered by each approach.
Kathryn Kennison (M), Ruth Dudley Edwards, Stuart Neville

14.10.2009:

BBC Radio 4: The Moral Maze

SEPTEMBER 2009 

12.09.2009:

Books 2009 Dublin: Moderating 'In Cold Blood - the art of true crime writing'

AUGUST 2009 

28.08.2009:

interview on Talk Europe Radio

03.08.2009:

Sherlock Holmes Pub: CWA summer party

JULY 2009 

31.07.2009:

BBC2 Jeremy Vine: discussing assisted suicide

26.07.2009:

BBC Northern Ireland: Sunday Sequence.

25.07.2009:

Harrogate Crime Festival (23–26 July 2009): Chairing Emerald Noir panel; participants Declan Hughes, Gene Kerrigan, Ava McCarthy and Brian McGilloway

21.07.2009:

Heffers, Cambridge:  Bodies in the Bookshop – authors meeting readers

15.07.2009:

Dublin: Interviews with Ireland AM Breakfast TV on TV3; Pat Kenny on RTE Radio 1; Sean Moncrieff on Newstalk ; Tom McGurk on 4FM; and Matt Cooper on The Last Word on Today FM

12.07.2009:

Participated in an hour-long discussion on Patrick Pearse on Talking History, on Newstalk, an independent Irish national radio station.  

08.07.2009: Launch of Aftermath at Queen's University Bookshop
07.07.2009:

Bantry, County Cork: West Cork Literary Festival.  Readings from some of my satirical crime novels and talking about Aftermath.

02.07.2009:

Interview: Talk Radio Europe

JUNE 2009 

30.06.2009:

Launch party for Ruth's new book Aftermath - the Omagh Bombing and the Families' Pursuit of Justice hosted by Policy Exchange at Ideas Space, Clutha House, Westminster, London.

25.06.2009:

Dublin: Opened ‘Threshold’, an exhibition of paintings by Dymphna Headen

MAY 2009 

15.05.2009:

Bristol: 12.00-1.00: Chaired ‘Born to Kill’ and participated in ‘Lighter than Noir’.

14–17.05.2009:

CrimeFest, Bristol

APRIL 2009 

28.04.2009:

Gore Hotel, London: CWA Diamond Dagger party

17–19.04.2009:

Lincoln: Crime Writers Association annual conference

3.04.2009:

Today with Pat Kenny:  Radio 1, rte.ie Ruth debated commonwealth membership with Noel Dorr. The segment starts 24 minutes into the show and lasts for 12 minutes.

MARCH 2009 

3.03.2009:

Law Society UCD:  Proposing: ‘That this House regrets the 1916 Rising’

FEBRUARY 2009 

26.02.2009:

Launch: Nick Cohen’s Waiting for the Etonians

2.02.2009:

Memorial party: Marjorie Deane

JANUARY 2009 

26.01.2009:

New Culture Forum: Jonah Goldberg on Liberal Fascism

11.01.2009:

Peace in Israel and Gaza demonstration, Trafalgar Square

DECEMBER 2008 

1.12.2008:

University College Cork Philosophical Society debating against Minister Martin Mansergh the motion ‘That this house believes that the 1916 Easter Rising was immoral

NOVEMBER 2008 

18.11.2008:

Speaker at the annual seminar of The Association of Jewish Women’s Oranisations in the UK

SEPTEMBER 2008 

25.09.2008: Crime Pays at Aspects Festival, North Down Museum, Bangor
22.09.2008:

'Free speech, jihad and the future of western civilization': a conference on libel tourism.  The panels included Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Theodore Dalrymple and Mark Steyn.

5–6.09.2008:

Participant in Sunday Independent Book Festival, Trinity College Dublin. See Independent web review, and Grab your chance to hatch a plot with top writers, Sunday Independent, 31 August 2008, and Irish crime stories, Herald HQ, 4 September 2008

Read about it on crimealwayspays.blogspot.com and A great literary meeting of criminal minds at Books 08

AUGUST 2008 

21.08.2008:

Royal Society, 50 Things you need to know about history

17.08.2008:

Omagh commemoration

15.08.2008:

Omagh commemoration

JULY 2008 

14.07.2008:
6.00 – 8.00

Heffer’s Bookshop, Cambridge: annual ‘Bodies in the Bookshop’, where readers meet authors. See 'Getting away with Murder', by Mike Ripley.

JUNE 2008 

19.06.2008:

Panellist on ‘Let’s Talk’, BBC Ulster TV

5–8.06.2008:

*NEWSFLASH*

CrimeFest, Bristol

Murdering Americans won the Last Laugh award at CrimeFest!

APRIL 2008 

25–27.04.2008:

Crime Writers’ Annual Conference

MARCH 2008 

15.03.2008:

Debate at Cambridge Irish Society

DECEMBER 2007 

03.12.2007:

Policy Exchange party

04.12.2007:

Irish Embassy party

05.12.2007:

New Culture Forum Panel on 1968 along with Michael Attwell, Neil Lyndon and Austin Williams

18.12.2007:

First Post party

NOVEMBER 2007 

01.11.2007:

Dublin service for Anthony Clare

08.11.2007:

Launch party for Daniel Johnson's White King and Red Queen: how the cold war was fought on the chessboard.

13.11.2007: Culture Clash: discussion on My Boy Jack and Elizabeth: the Golden Age
20.11.2007:

Interview with AH Ali

26.11.2007:

Institute of Contemporary Arts - On panel discussing the press - 'Silencing the truth'

OCTOBER 2007 

08.10.2007:

Talk by Ibn Warraq at the Centre for Social Cohesion

17.10.2007:

Policy Exchange, Paul Bew, speaking about the theme of his Ireland: The Politics of Enmity 1789-2006

18.10.2007:

Social Affairs Unit, Panel discussion, 'Do Magazines matter?:
The New Criterion at 25', with Anthony Daniels, Roger Kimball, Kenneth Minogue, Eric Ormsby and David Pryce-Jones

19.10.2007:

Launch party for Piers Brendon's The Decline and Fall of the British Empire

26–28.10.2007: Muncie, Indiana: Magna cum Murder.

Ruth will be interviewing Lindsey Davis and appearing with Troy Cook, Denise Dietz, Honora Finkelstein, Susan Smily, Bill Fitzhugh and Parnell Hall on 'The Humor Panel' and will be the moderator of the panel on Political Correctness and Criminal Acts' (members: Bill Fitzhugh, Charlotte Hays, Heather Jeeves and John O'Sullivan). My friend John O'Sullivan on Magna cum Murder

SEPTEMBER 2007 

04.09.2007:  Policy Exchange: Launch of Islam in Australia: Democratic bipartisanship in action, by Gerard Henderson; panel, Gerard Henderson, H.E. Richard Alston, the Australian High Commissioner in London; the Rt. Hon. David Maclean MP; Khalid Mahmood MP; Councillor Fiyaz Mughal; Haras Rafiq; and the Rt. Hon. John Spellar MP 
13.09.2007: 

Interview on Ronnie Biggs on the John Gaunt Show on Talk Sport

18.09.2007:  Launch party for Murdering Americans, London    
24.09.2007: Launch party for Murdering Americans, Belfast
27–30.09.2007: Bouchercon 2007, Anchorage, Alaska.  On panel chaired by Laurie King, with Charles Benoit, Stephen Booth and Sharan Newman, to discuss why on earth we put our characters on earth. Read Ruth's Buchercon diary from The Irish Times

AUGUST 2007 

06.08.2007: Policy Exchange:  Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan,  Premier of the Azad Government of the State of Jammu and Kashmir
07.08.2007: BBC, ‘You and Yours, on panel with Lord (Roy) Hattersley, G.P. Taylor and Julia Unwin, discussing contemporary social evils.
14.08.2007: CWA London chapter meeting
16.08.2007: Policy Exchange: Why has Channel 4’s “Undercover Mosque” programme been referred to Ofcom?
20.08.2007: 08.20  BBC World Service: debate on multiculturalism and diversity in London   
20.08.2007: 17.00 Epilogue, Press TV: discussion of Melanie Phillips’s Londonistan
21.08.2007: 20.30 Culture Clash: discussion of TV fakes and the controversy about Undercover Mosque
27.08.2007: Interview on Ireland's Today FM on the issue of turbans being banned for gardai

JULY 2007 

05.07.2007: Crime Writers Association Annual Dinner and awards ceremony, Four Seasons Hotel
08.07.2007: New Culture Forum Party
16.07.2007: Policy Exchange  "Counter Terrorism after the  London and Glasgow Attacks : What Legislation Do We Need Now?"  
17.07.2007:  Heffers, Cambridge: Bodies in the Bookshop 2007: get-together of writers and readers
21–22.07.2007: Festival of Ideas 2007, Sedbergh: on panel with John Harris, Sir Bernard Crick and Greg Rosen, discussing ‘Blair: The Record; Brown: The Prospects’

JUNE 2007 

01–02.06.2007: Goldsmith International Literary Festival, Ballymahon, Co Longford, Ireland: on panel chaired by Dave O’Connell, with Brian Lenihan TD and Paddy O’Gorman, discussing ‘Multicultural Ireland – Is there a limit to tolerance?’
19.06.2007: More 4 News discussing the knighthood of Salman Rushdie with A.L. Kennedy and host Kylie Morris
24.06.2007: Talk to the St Alban’s Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association on ‘Domestic Terrorism’
27.06.2007: Quercus party for Elena Forbes’s Die with me

MAY 2007 

01.05.2007:
8.00 pm
Culture Clash, Peter Whittle’s weekly programme on Talk TV at 18 Doughty Street (www.18doughtystreet.com), on panel discussing the films ‘The Lives of Others’ and ‘Fast Food Nation’
01.05.2007:
9.45 pm
Nightwaves’ on BBC Radio 3, discussing Robert Maxwell with Simon Jenkins
04-06.05.2007: Malice Domestic, Arlington, Virginia: On panel chaired by Roberta Rogow with Diana Killian, Louise Penny and Anne White, discussing ‘There’s nothing wrong with tradition’
09.05.2007: Reception at the Savoy in London for the award of the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger to John Harvey
23.05.2007: New Culture Forum discussion led by Sir Andrew Green of Migrationwatch: ‘The immigration debate: driven by events or by the media?’
30.05.2007 Henry Jackson Society and Centre for Social Cohesion: meeting with Dr Wafa Sultan on ‘Islam and the West’
PUBLISHED AUTUMN 2008:

 
Poisoned Pen Press US have recently reissued Ten Lords A-Leaping and The Anglo-Irish Murders.

All Ruth's fiction is now back in print.

PUBLISHED SPRING 2007:

image links to more information and reviews

The latest Robert Amiss/Jack Troutbeck mystery is now available in the US and will be published in the UK in September.

Details and New York Times review

Corridors of Death, the first Robert Amiss, was reissued in the US in May.

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Extracts from REVIEWS of Ruth's latest non-fiction book:

Aftermath – the Omagh bomging and the families' pursuit of justice

"She is one of the most important contemporary writers on Ireland and this is compulsive reading... the entire work is an Irish masterpiece." 
Tribune

"This vital, powerful book tells a story of loss, resilience and terrorism... this book... recounts a remarkable story of victims’ resilience and vindication, and deserves to be very widely read."
Irish Times

"The brilliant new book by Ruth Dudley Edwards that charts the story of the bombing and of the families’ long and defiant fight for some sort of justice."
Belfast Telegraph

"Dudley Edwards expertly weaves human interest, politics and the legal realm together to tell the remarkable tale of determination which saw the families stay the course to see those they felt responsible held accountable for the worst massacre in the recent history of Northern Ireland. Essential reading."
Metro

"Ruth Dudley Edwards' account of the Omagh bomb is all the more heartbreaking for her mastery of the small human details… Its portrayal of cruelty and suffering is relevant far beyond Ireland. It should be compulsory reading for everyone – terrorists and state forces – contemplating planting, or dropping, a bomb in conflict."
Sunday Tribune

"Aftermath is a forensic account of what happened leading up to and after Omagh, set against the historical background and the developing situation in the North. It's all covered in fascinating and moving detail -- the lives of the victims leading up to that terrible day, the botched warning calls, the mobile phones that caught the bombers, the political fallout, the grief of the families and their campaign that eventually did the impossible.
It combines Dudley Edwards's ability as a gifted historian with her skill as a journalist to produce a hugely important and authoritative book that reads as compulsively as a thriller."
Irish Independent

"Dudley Edwards’ finely-researched book benefits from her own proximity to the events and her personal knowledge of the protagonists - the hitherto ordinary people - who took on the Real IRA in the courts, even though there was no precedent anywhere in the world for what they sought to achieve. For anyone interested in this chilling area of recent Irish history, Aftermath is recommended reading."
Sunday Business Post

"It is a remarkable and moving story, told in masterly fashion by Ruth Dudley Edwards. Her narrative grips from the start. It is as compelling as a thriller and displays the sympathetic imagination of a great novel... This is an extraordinary and uplifting story of how a group of ordinary people managed to get the justice they sought. It is beautifully told."
Scotsman

"The Omagh families have not only held terrorists to account for the death of their loved ones; their legacy is a new legal remedy for victims of violence everywhere."
Sunday Times

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Ruth Dudley Edwards
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