A weblog of reflections on both love and war,from a British perspective
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Tuesday 06 April 2003-UK
I managed to return to UK from France,getting caught up in Paris,with the arrival of HM Queen(a former boss of mine).She's spending 3 days in France(Paris and Toulouse) to celebrate the 'Entente Cordiale',an agreem signed between Great Britain and France,exactly 100 years ago.It formalised the 'love/hate' relationship that exists between the two countries.However,in time of extreme peril,they will always come to the aid of each other.At all other times,they twist each other's tails,or so the locals think.I had a very happy period as a 'Stageur' with the French Army some years ago,and was fortunate to be based in South West France and Corsica,both very attractive and different oparts of this large country.At the same time,my opposite number from the Regiment I went to( 2 REP),came to UK to do my military job.Many years later,I met the same people,when i arrived in Bosnia at the beginning of the war there in 1992.One of the troop commanders,from my earlier time,was now CO,and the Regiment fortified with many Brits,who joined the REP(The Legion) after the Falklands War.In 1992,they were based on the airfield at Sarajevo,while a former CO was the UN head of Operations in Bosnia.Small world.
An article written about me,in a 'men's magazine in UK about 2 years ago
'CYCLONE' FEATURE
"I killed my first man while a soldier prior to Sandhurst. This was in an outpost of Empire and it was a 'him or me' situation. Only afterwards does one contemplate what has happened."
Those chilling words weren't spoken by a mercenary fighting for money in an African power play, or a rogue marine with an unquenchable bloodlust, but by a former British soldier whose life resembles something out of a Boy's Own novel. Bloody Sunday, operations in the Gulf, photographing porn stars and designing satellite tracking systems for the Internet are just some of the milestones in a life lived constantly on the edge.
'Cyclone' was a Dr. Barnardo's child who learnt to be self reliant from an early age - his mother died in childbirth and his father was killed in 1946 while still in the military:
"I grew up with an envy of those who had a parental upbringing and often railed against those who claimed to have 'hated' their parents. An abiding memory of Dr B's is that the older children looked after the younger ones when we went out to school, etc. There was always a 'Them' and 'Us' attitude when at school and in the playground."
He worked hard enough to go to university and after a brief spell with an advertising agency, casually passed a recruiting office in Charing Cross and found himself in the army. It was during this first taste of action that he learnt killing skills:
"The whole business of killing has always seemed unnatural. War is a child's game played by adults. However, if there are to be nation states and some world order, states will always need to have and train people in this skill. The army used to say that in the first 6 weeks of training recruits were taught to 'close with the enemy and kill him'. That is still the aim of the soldier today.
"The enemy is always defined by someone else. I have to say that the killing has not changed me, but has pointed to the need to be self-sufficient emotionally. If by killing others I could protect the men that I was put in command of, then so be it."
Because of his educational background, Cyclone was prodded into going to Sandhurst for officer training. Some of the regular army instructors found it hard to stomach that a soldier from the ranks was about to become an officer, but his natural gift for languages was already preparing him for more specialised duties:
"I remember we had joint exercises with the French officer cadets. As I spoke good French I found myself attached to them as a parachutist. That meant only taking part in the last few hours of a 3 day exercise - my earthbound friends had to walk for 3 days and 3 nights!"
When Ulster exploded in June 1969 and the resident army units were asked to help the police quell the trouble, Cyclone's unit was on 'spearhead' (i.e. on standby for rapid deployment). In September, the Middlesex regiment was the only infantry unit in Belfast, so Cyclone's was called into action:
"Initially we protected the Catholics in West Belfast from the part-time B Specials. These were guys in armoured cars with 30 cal machine guns firing down the Falls Road with abandon. The Catholic honeymoon with the army was over and the provisional and official IRA fought a battle for internal supremacy. The Provisionals won. They had very few weapons to defend their community - one reason why they don't wish at present to decommission.
"Our duties were as peacekeepers, with a secondary role in combat engineering and construction. The local police barracks also had to be 'hardened'. My first 'tour' ended in early 1970, although I didn't feel much like a tourist. Rudimentary training in surveillance and other techniques was given, but the wisdom at the time was that 'good people will take naturally to the work'. The RUC had yet to develop any such capability and many Special Branch officers had died with all their knowledge locked in their brains as they seemed to have little record-keeping ability.
"While the Protestant community claimed to be 'in support' of the RUC and the army, at the time there's no doubt in my mind that their community contained many who enjoyed killing (as did the Nationalists) and found it convenient to nail their flag to a particular political mast. There seemed more dedication amongst Catholics to their cause than by the other community who regarded themselves very much as sitting tenants who controlled all the levers of political and economic power at the time."
Then came Bloody Sunday, one of the defining traumas of the Troubles, with the Catholic dead on the streets and the recriminations still echoing today. Cyclone's memories of the day are grim:
"My unit was attached to 1 Para who were 'province reserve' and able to move quickly to any trouble spot. As we moved into the Bogside, we were shot at with Thompson rounds (0.45 rounds which travel slowly and have a distinctive sound). Our radios were not ideal for a built-up area and control could not always be exercised, on our side, through this mechanism. After the initial firing from the other side, our own guys opened up and the targets 'fell when hit'.
"I do remember the TV images I saw afterwards, particularly the one with the priest walking down the street holding a white handkerchief. Most of my guys had actually not fired any rounds, most of the firing coming from support company of 1 Para. Some of their fire also came in our direction and I tried twice to shout to them to point out that they were shooting at friendly forces."
Soon he was involved in plains clothes operations designed to frustrate the Nationalists and to foment internal warfare between the official and provisional IRA:
"One operation involved ambushing customs posts on the border. We looked into some of the customs people working in the border customs areas and soon discovered two who were actively helping the IRA. A trap was laid which resulted in deaths on their side and much useful intelligence.
"In another operation we wished to have some control over internal policing of the Nationalist areas by the IRA. The theft of cars in such areas for use in shoots by the IRA was common. We therefore dangled such a vehicle in front of them and they took the bait. Our driver shot two would-be car thieves dead in a well organised operation. This made the IRA not feel safe in their own areas and kept them off balance. Our operations in this arena were independent of the green army and also the RUC."
After leaving Northern Ireland, Cyclone worked with US, French, Swedish and German Forces - in some cases on an officer exchange basis - and with others on exercises. He also learnt Arabic "when sent to the Middle East to wage a small war." He's never fought as a mercenary, dismissively regarding them as "not particularly good at their job and they don't take undue risks." As for other foreign forces, he still believes the British have the best led and manned army in the world:
"Currently, however, it lacks the logistical power of the Americans which is quite awesome. Now that the French have gone for a professional army, other European conscript armies will follow which will increase their effectiveness. The Germans are now at last taking part in some 'out of area' offensive operations which is a big step for them. With the exception of their airborne units, the Russian army has gone completely to hell. Soldiers and officers are not paid or housed properly and I remember seeing Russians in former East Germany selling weapons in their garrison towns."
Cyclone finally left the army in 1976 and after some unproductive interviews went into business for himself:
"I decided that people with degrees who can jump out of planes and kill people are not really suited to corporate employment. I networked with others from my own background and found work in the insurance, logistics and security industries. I spent a large part of the time in the Gulf, dealing with ships that had been hit by Iraqi missiles."
Then a chance meeting during a holiday in Malaga opened up a new 'shooting' career. He met a Danish woman called Ingrid, a model who was working with hardcore pornographer Berth Milton, founder of the blue movie company Private. Cyclone was introduced to him, helped sort out some of his tax worries and was offered work as a photographer for Private specialising in English girls. Even here, though, his past was never far away:
"Berth fell for an Ulster girl who modelled for him and lived with him whom I shall call 'Jay'. She was small, very beautiful and recently divorced from a terrorist there. She did the modelling to take a pop at her former husband and there was nothing she wouldn't do and enjoy on film. A complex personality who at 20 had already been convicted of child cruelty, she was beautiful, devious and manipulative, for a dyslexic. She became an international porn star under the name Anjelica and was often hit upon by other women. I saw Jay by accident on a plane some years later in the USA and we renewed our acquaintance. Nothing much had changed except that she was still fighting the system, Ulster style."
Cyclone took up Milton's offer and he laughs at the memories of performing a job that millions of guys would cheerfully give their right arm for:
"I remember meeting Lindsay Drew, fresh from Tesco's in Bristol. She seemed to find the whole sex industry quite a laugh. Then there was Sally Forino (aka Pat Wynn), an older lady with an excellent figure who had taken some big falls after starting life in a privileged position. She was always saying, in her upper class way, 'I will not do that' and a short time afterwards was doing it!
"Lynn Armitage was a former lady biker champion from Oldham. A favourite of Milton, she was a born exhibitionist who loved her work. I also photographed big-boobed Sarah Young from Borden in Hampshire who had been living with a wealthy Arab until he threw her out. She was great looking and bright - the best combination. I was also one of the first to shoot Louise Hodges who has stayed the course in the adult world. Milton managed to deprave her without any difficulty. She is now a regular on television…"
It was a job that did have its dangers, though, as was illustrated by a moment of madness from Berth:
"Milton used to get lots of letters from wealthy guys (and girls) seeking introductions to his girls. One man who's a household name wanted to meet Berth's Number One female of the time and flew down in his corporate jet to Malaga. Dinner was taken and eventually the 'happy couple' adjourned to Milton's pad and got it together. Milton filmed the whole thing secretly and it was only with great persuasion that he didn't publish the result. There is no doubt that had he done so something quite unpleasant would have happened to him and the girl…"
Cyclone remains philosophical about his own love life, which not surprisingly has been anything but stable:
" I got married in the late Seventies to a girl from an old military family. However constant travel didn't help and we drifted apart. I haven't repeated the experience but I have had some long term relationships, all of which I enjoyed. Several of these women had paramilitary connections around the world and were the more interesting for it.
"While to many the company of beautiful women may seem like paradise, most of them are very insecure. Beauty is often their stock in trade and any fading of it, as perceived by them, makes them even more insecure. Sex on its own is no foundation for a relationship. If men don't understand women, it's because women don't understand themselves."
Cyclone eventually left the porn business to explore the greatest technological innovation of the last decade - the Internet:
"It struck me that the system was one big electronic library and that if one could archive the information from its chaotic form into something of value, people would purchase the result. Thus I created several Web based businesses on this principle. In 1995 it dawned upon me that, subject to network restraints, the Net was the biggest revolution since the printing press and didn't involve cutting down as many trees.
"I met a woman on a plane going from Seattle to New York who asked me how difficult it would be to set up an Internet site. She's an exhibitionist and together with her husband I helped them set up a website where she could show herself off to the world (http://www.wifeysworld.com). They now earn $9,000 a month from subscriptions!"
He's recently been involved in developing a Web-based cargo tracking system, an Internet news service for the security industry and a mobile phone tracking system for the States. Easily bored, he has strong views about the future of communications:
"The desktop PC will be extinct in 5 years. Everyone will use a palmtop enabled for high speed Internet access or a television with a set top box, receiving the Internet over Bill Gates' satellite system (teledisc). The mobile phone will develop into a major communications tool and voice recognition technology will convert voice into digital transmission and vice versa for sending and receiving information over the Internet."
But while he's in the midst of planning another strategic campaign to take on the mighty forces of Microsoft, it's impossible to ignore the occasional note of wistfulness or pain in his voice. It would be impossible to have gone through such a baptism of fire as Cyclone has experienced in his life without avoiding wounds, some of them deep:
"I regret the death of some really good friends early on in my military career. When I think about them now, they had so much potential both inside and outside the armed forces. As one dying friend said to me, 'A university degree is no armour against this shit'. War forges particular friendships which transcend all others. Girlfriends have often said 'Your friends are more important than I am'. It's not the case - they're just different…"
Once I've gathered my thoughts on yesterday's porn film shoot in Paris,I'll write them here.I was only a bystander-for a change!
I managed to return to UK from France,getting caught up in Paris,with the arrival of HM Queen(a former boss of mine).She's spending 3 days in France(Paris and Toulouse) to celebrate the 'Entente Cordiale',an agreem signed between Great Britain and France,exactly 100 years ago.It formalised the 'love/hate' relationship that exists between the two countries.However,in time of extreme peril,they will always come to the aid of each other.At all other times,they twist each other's tails,or so the locals think.I had a very happy period as a 'Stageur' with the French Army some years ago,and was fortunate to be based in South West France and Corsica,both very attractive and different oparts of this large country.At the same time,my opposite number from the Regiment I went to( 2 REP),came to UK to do my military job.Many years later,I met the same people,when i arrived in Bosnia at the beginning of the war there in 1992.One of the troop commanders,from my earlier time,was now CO,and the Regiment fortified with many Brits,who joined the REP(The Legion) after the Falklands War.In 1992,they were based on the airfield at Sarajevo,while a former CO was the UN head of Operations in Bosnia.Small world.
An article written about me,in a 'men's magazine in UK about 2 years ago
'CYCLONE' FEATURE
"I killed my first man while a soldier prior to Sandhurst. This was in an outpost of Empire and it was a 'him or me' situation. Only afterwards does one contemplate what has happened."
Those chilling words weren't spoken by a mercenary fighting for money in an African power play, or a rogue marine with an unquenchable bloodlust, but by a former British soldier whose life resembles something out of a Boy's Own novel. Bloody Sunday, operations in the Gulf, photographing porn stars and designing satellite tracking systems for the Internet are just some of the milestones in a life lived constantly on the edge.
'Cyclone' was a Dr. Barnardo's child who learnt to be self reliant from an early age - his mother died in childbirth and his father was killed in 1946 while still in the military:
"I grew up with an envy of those who had a parental upbringing and often railed against those who claimed to have 'hated' their parents. An abiding memory of Dr B's is that the older children looked after the younger ones when we went out to school, etc. There was always a 'Them' and 'Us' attitude when at school and in the playground."
He worked hard enough to go to university and after a brief spell with an advertising agency, casually passed a recruiting office in Charing Cross and found himself in the army. It was during this first taste of action that he learnt killing skills:
"The whole business of killing has always seemed unnatural. War is a child's game played by adults. However, if there are to be nation states and some world order, states will always need to have and train people in this skill. The army used to say that in the first 6 weeks of training recruits were taught to 'close with the enemy and kill him'. That is still the aim of the soldier today.
"The enemy is always defined by someone else. I have to say that the killing has not changed me, but has pointed to the need to be self-sufficient emotionally. If by killing others I could protect the men that I was put in command of, then so be it."
Because of his educational background, Cyclone was prodded into going to Sandhurst for officer training. Some of the regular army instructors found it hard to stomach that a soldier from the ranks was about to become an officer, but his natural gift for languages was already preparing him for more specialised duties:
"I remember we had joint exercises with the French officer cadets. As I spoke good French I found myself attached to them as a parachutist. That meant only taking part in the last few hours of a 3 day exercise - my earthbound friends had to walk for 3 days and 3 nights!"
When Ulster exploded in June 1969 and the resident army units were asked to help the police quell the trouble, Cyclone's unit was on 'spearhead' (i.e. on standby for rapid deployment). In September, the Middlesex regiment was the only infantry unit in Belfast, so Cyclone's was called into action:
"Initially we protected the Catholics in West Belfast from the part-time B Specials. These were guys in armoured cars with 30 cal machine guns firing down the Falls Road with abandon. The Catholic honeymoon with the army was over and the provisional and official IRA fought a battle for internal supremacy. The Provisionals won. They had very few weapons to defend their community - one reason why they don't wish at present to decommission.
"Our duties were as peacekeepers, with a secondary role in combat engineering and construction. The local police barracks also had to be 'hardened'. My first 'tour' ended in early 1970, although I didn't feel much like a tourist. Rudimentary training in surveillance and other techniques was given, but the wisdom at the time was that 'good people will take naturally to the work'. The RUC had yet to develop any such capability and many Special Branch officers had died with all their knowledge locked in their brains as they seemed to have little record-keeping ability.
"While the Protestant community claimed to be 'in support' of the RUC and the army, at the time there's no doubt in my mind that their community contained many who enjoyed killing (as did the Nationalists) and found it convenient to nail their flag to a particular political mast. There seemed more dedication amongst Catholics to their cause than by the other community who regarded themselves very much as sitting tenants who controlled all the levers of political and economic power at the time."
Then came Bloody Sunday, one of the defining traumas of the Troubles, with the Catholic dead on the streets and the recriminations still echoing today. Cyclone's memories of the day are grim:
"My unit was attached to 1 Para who were 'province reserve' and able to move quickly to any trouble spot. As we moved into the Bogside, we were shot at with Thompson rounds (0.45 rounds which travel slowly and have a distinctive sound). Our radios were not ideal for a built-up area and control could not always be exercised, on our side, through this mechanism. After the initial firing from the other side, our own guys opened up and the targets 'fell when hit'.
"I do remember the TV images I saw afterwards, particularly the one with the priest walking down the street holding a white handkerchief. Most of my guys had actually not fired any rounds, most of the firing coming from support company of 1 Para. Some of their fire also came in our direction and I tried twice to shout to them to point out that they were shooting at friendly forces."
Soon he was involved in plains clothes operations designed to frustrate the Nationalists and to foment internal warfare between the official and provisional IRA:
"One operation involved ambushing customs posts on the border. We looked into some of the customs people working in the border customs areas and soon discovered two who were actively helping the IRA. A trap was laid which resulted in deaths on their side and much useful intelligence.
"In another operation we wished to have some control over internal policing of the Nationalist areas by the IRA. The theft of cars in such areas for use in shoots by the IRA was common. We therefore dangled such a vehicle in front of them and they took the bait. Our driver shot two would-be car thieves dead in a well organised operation. This made the IRA not feel safe in their own areas and kept them off balance. Our operations in this arena were independent of the green army and also the RUC."
After leaving Northern Ireland, Cyclone worked with US, French, Swedish and German Forces - in some cases on an officer exchange basis - and with others on exercises. He also learnt Arabic "when sent to the Middle East to wage a small war." He's never fought as a mercenary, dismissively regarding them as "not particularly good at their job and they don't take undue risks." As for other foreign forces, he still believes the British have the best led and manned army in the world:
"Currently, however, it lacks the logistical power of the Americans which is quite awesome. Now that the French have gone for a professional army, other European conscript armies will follow which will increase their effectiveness. The Germans are now at last taking part in some 'out of area' offensive operations which is a big step for them. With the exception of their airborne units, the Russian army has gone completely to hell. Soldiers and officers are not paid or housed properly and I remember seeing Russians in former East Germany selling weapons in their garrison towns."
Cyclone finally left the army in 1976 and after some unproductive interviews went into business for himself:
"I decided that people with degrees who can jump out of planes and kill people are not really suited to corporate employment. I networked with others from my own background and found work in the insurance, logistics and security industries. I spent a large part of the time in the Gulf, dealing with ships that had been hit by Iraqi missiles."
Then a chance meeting during a holiday in Malaga opened up a new 'shooting' career. He met a Danish woman called Ingrid, a model who was working with hardcore pornographer Berth Milton, founder of the blue movie company Private. Cyclone was introduced to him, helped sort out some of his tax worries and was offered work as a photographer for Private specialising in English girls. Even here, though, his past was never far away:
"Berth fell for an Ulster girl who modelled for him and lived with him whom I shall call 'Jay'. She was small, very beautiful and recently divorced from a terrorist there. She did the modelling to take a pop at her former husband and there was nothing she wouldn't do and enjoy on film. A complex personality who at 20 had already been convicted of child cruelty, she was beautiful, devious and manipulative, for a dyslexic. She became an international porn star under the name Anjelica and was often hit upon by other women. I saw Jay by accident on a plane some years later in the USA and we renewed our acquaintance. Nothing much had changed except that she was still fighting the system, Ulster style."
Cyclone took up Milton's offer and he laughs at the memories of performing a job that millions of guys would cheerfully give their right arm for:
"I remember meeting Lindsay Drew, fresh from Tesco's in Bristol. She seemed to find the whole sex industry quite a laugh. Then there was Sally Forino (aka Pat Wynn), an older lady with an excellent figure who had taken some big falls after starting life in a privileged position. She was always saying, in her upper class way, 'I will not do that' and a short time afterwards was doing it!
"Lynn Armitage was a former lady biker champion from Oldham. A favourite of Milton, she was a born exhibitionist who loved her work. I also photographed big-boobed Sarah Young from Borden in Hampshire who had been living with a wealthy Arab until he threw her out. She was great looking and bright - the best combination. I was also one of the first to shoot Louise Hodges who has stayed the course in the adult world. Milton managed to deprave her without any difficulty. She is now a regular on television…"
It was a job that did have its dangers, though, as was illustrated by a moment of madness from Berth:
"Milton used to get lots of letters from wealthy guys (and girls) seeking introductions to his girls. One man who's a household name wanted to meet Berth's Number One female of the time and flew down in his corporate jet to Malaga. Dinner was taken and eventually the 'happy couple' adjourned to Milton's pad and got it together. Milton filmed the whole thing secretly and it was only with great persuasion that he didn't publish the result. There is no doubt that had he done so something quite unpleasant would have happened to him and the girl…"
Cyclone remains philosophical about his own love life, which not surprisingly has been anything but stable:
" I got married in the late Seventies to a girl from an old military family. However constant travel didn't help and we drifted apart. I haven't repeated the experience but I have had some long term relationships, all of which I enjoyed. Several of these women had paramilitary connections around the world and were the more interesting for it.
"While to many the company of beautiful women may seem like paradise, most of them are very insecure. Beauty is often their stock in trade and any fading of it, as perceived by them, makes them even more insecure. Sex on its own is no foundation for a relationship. If men don't understand women, it's because women don't understand themselves."
Cyclone eventually left the porn business to explore the greatest technological innovation of the last decade - the Internet:
"It struck me that the system was one big electronic library and that if one could archive the information from its chaotic form into something of value, people would purchase the result. Thus I created several Web based businesses on this principle. In 1995 it dawned upon me that, subject to network restraints, the Net was the biggest revolution since the printing press and didn't involve cutting down as many trees.
"I met a woman on a plane going from Seattle to New York who asked me how difficult it would be to set up an Internet site. She's an exhibitionist and together with her husband I helped them set up a website where she could show herself off to the world (http://www.wifeysworld.com). They now earn $9,000 a month from subscriptions!"
He's recently been involved in developing a Web-based cargo tracking system, an Internet news service for the security industry and a mobile phone tracking system for the States. Easily bored, he has strong views about the future of communications:
"The desktop PC will be extinct in 5 years. Everyone will use a palmtop enabled for high speed Internet access or a television with a set top box, receiving the Internet over Bill Gates' satellite system (teledisc). The mobile phone will develop into a major communications tool and voice recognition technology will convert voice into digital transmission and vice versa for sending and receiving information over the Internet."
But while he's in the midst of planning another strategic campaign to take on the mighty forces of Microsoft, it's impossible to ignore the occasional note of wistfulness or pain in his voice. It would be impossible to have gone through such a baptism of fire as Cyclone has experienced in his life without avoiding wounds, some of them deep:
"I regret the death of some really good friends early on in my military career. When I think about them now, they had so much potential both inside and outside the armed forces. As one dying friend said to me, 'A university degree is no armour against this shit'. War forges particular friendships which transcend all others. Girlfriends have often said 'Your friends are more important than I am'. It's not the case - they're just different…"
Once I've gathered my thoughts on yesterday's porn film shoot in Paris,I'll write them here.I was only a bystander-for a change!
Sunday, April 04, 2004
04 April-Some likes and dislikes!
Intelligent pretty ladies-most are the former,few are both...................discuss
Technology,if it saves you time to enjoy the more important things in life(eg the above!)
Loyalty to friends.The foundation of life.
The Economist and Private Eye.Competence and irreverence in one.
Windows spellchecker.Fine for Americans.
Political Correctness.I hate it.It stifles progress,allows bureaucrats to hide their shortcomings behind it,and will become the death of British civilisation.Another import from America!
Intelligent pretty ladies-most are the former,few are both...................discuss
Technology,if it saves you time to enjoy the more important things in life(eg the above!)
Loyalty to friends.The foundation of life.
The Economist and Private Eye.Competence and irreverence in one.
Windows spellchecker.Fine for Americans.
Political Correctness.I hate it.It stifles progress,allows bureaucrats to hide their shortcomings behind it,and will become the death of British civilisation.Another import from America!
04 April-Paris.
I almost forgot!The famous Belle de Jour blog IS written by a Jewish bloke,from N London.He also writes for the Sunday Times in London(so he must have a vivid imagination!).Try looking under the initials A N in today`s ST which has just arrived here.A prize to anyone who gets it right.
I almost forgot!The famous Belle de Jour blog IS written by a Jewish bloke,from N London.He also writes for the Sunday Times in London(so he must have a vivid imagination!).Try looking under the initials A N in today`s ST which has just arrived here.A prize to anyone who gets it right.
04 Apri Paris-Later
Have just been to visit an old pal,born in the Jewish quarter of Sarajevo,a place of great learning before the war there.He`s been a soldier and elder statesman of the European porn industry.He lives in Paris with a sucession of lithe ladies,and speaks several languages,some unusual,as well as writing articles in the press and making up-market porn films.Years ago we made one together,where a group of english people came to Paris,took off their clothing in broad daylight and fucked with abandon,without getting arrested!I think the film can still be obtained as Paris Weekend from Scala BV on CD/Video.He's shooting again tomorrow and has asked me to visit him then.I`ll try.Mack is incredible resilient.His family were protected from the Germans during their occupation of Jugoslavia,and after the war,left for Israel.After military service,he became a photo journalist with a famous Paris magazine.When it folded he gravitated to porn,because he needed the money.Funny how one has these sudden and complete changes to life,mostly by chance.Our paths did not cross in Bosnia,for when I was there from 92-94,he was long gone;reflections on Bosnia can wait.First time we met was in Ulster in 1969!
Have just been to visit an old pal,born in the Jewish quarter of Sarajevo,a place of great learning before the war there.He`s been a soldier and elder statesman of the European porn industry.He lives in Paris with a sucession of lithe ladies,and speaks several languages,some unusual,as well as writing articles in the press and making up-market porn films.Years ago we made one together,where a group of english people came to Paris,took off their clothing in broad daylight and fucked with abandon,without getting arrested!I think the film can still be obtained as Paris Weekend from Scala BV on CD/Video.He's shooting again tomorrow and has asked me to visit him then.I`ll try.Mack is incredible resilient.His family were protected from the Germans during their occupation of Jugoslavia,and after the war,left for Israel.After military service,he became a photo journalist with a famous Paris magazine.When it folded he gravitated to porn,because he needed the money.Funny how one has these sudden and complete changes to life,mostly by chance.Our paths did not cross in Bosnia,for when I was there from 92-94,he was long gone;reflections on Bosnia can wait.First time we met was in Ulster in 1969!
Sun 04 April-Paris
I`m reflecting on my past life,after a dinner here,with some old friends from it.Apart from having my laptop swiped(I resolve to use a carrier that does NOT look like a laptop carrier,to discourage this),life is pretty good.My friends are an electic bunch,from former spooks/soldiers ,via journalists and academics through to tech warriors and porn luminaries.While I write about them,and myself in the ANON syle,they know who they are!
This has all come about as a result of an article written about(some) of my life in an English magazine,published last year.Needless to say it was written by a proper writer (BA Oxon et al...)
A short history of me:
BORN:1946 UK
UPBRINGING:Dr Barnado a famous group of children,s homes in UK,now written out of the plot,in favour of Local Authority run ones-A disaster.Grew up with a twin sister
EDUCATION:Mixture of public and private education,the public bit funded by Dr B.
Then off to the British Armed Forces.Involved in the closing moments of Empire in Aden,while still not 18.5 years(the present minimum age for active service).Oh forgot-lost virginity to the lovely Mrs Davies,about whom more later at 13,after lusting after her daughter,whom I did not bonk!
Off to Sandhurst for officer training followed by Cambridge University,to complete my training for a career that happened by accident.
I`m reflecting on my past life,after a dinner here,with some old friends from it.Apart from having my laptop swiped(I resolve to use a carrier that does NOT look like a laptop carrier,to discourage this),life is pretty good.My friends are an electic bunch,from former spooks/soldiers ,via journalists and academics through to tech warriors and porn luminaries.While I write about them,and myself in the ANON syle,they know who they are!
This has all come about as a result of an article written about(some) of my life in an English magazine,published last year.Needless to say it was written by a proper writer (BA Oxon et al...)
A short history of me:
BORN:1946 UK
UPBRINGING:Dr Barnado a famous group of children,s homes in UK,now written out of the plot,in favour of Local Authority run ones-A disaster.Grew up with a twin sister
EDUCATION:Mixture of public and private education,the public bit funded by Dr B.
Then off to the British Armed Forces.Involved in the closing moments of Empire in Aden,while still not 18.5 years(the present minimum age for active service).Oh forgot-lost virginity to the lovely Mrs Davies,about whom more later at 13,after lusting after her daughter,whom I did not bonk!
Off to Sandhurst for officer training followed by Cambridge University,to complete my training for a career that happened by accident.
