23 August 2009

Radio Netherlands Worldwide investigates "The Empty Chair"


Greene’s avid readers will be well aware that Prof. François Gallix’s discovery of Graham Greene’s unfinished and unpublished manuscript "The Empty Chair" (1926) is being issued in five monthly episodes by Strand magazine.

Recently Prof. Gallix was interviewed by Marijke Peters on Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW), and subsequently she wrote about Greene and Gallix for RNW's website.

Click here to read Miss Peters’ article and to listen to her interview, which lasts for 3 minutes and 7 seconds.

BBC's Humphrey Hawksley's Journey Without Maps


Graham Greene has been much in the news recently, and, if you have missed anything by Humphrey Hawksley (BBC World Affairs Correspondent) about West Africa, here is your chance to catch up.

Greene's Journey without Maps (1935) follows the writer’s journey through Sierra Leone and Liberia. He ran into drunken politicians, war lords, Christian missionaries, secret societies and chiefs with total power over their villages. The book questions the intentions of the West in Africa, and asks overarching questions. What were the whites --- as Greene then called the West --- actually doing there? Were they destined to failure? And would Africa always have the last “say”? In the last ten years --- with Britain taking the lead --- the West has intervened in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Humphrey Hawksley has retraced Greene's journey and reported on whether eighty years later the West's presence in Africa has changed, and to see what has changed and what has not.

Click here to listen again to Humphrey Hawksley’s report which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday 30th July 2009. The recording is timed at 8.45am, and lasts for 3 minutes 46 seconds.

Click here to watch Humphrey Hawksley’s film “Dancing with the Devil” in the series “Our World”. The film has been televised at various times this weekend on BBC News 24 and previously on BBC America.

Click here to read the report on the BBC news website.

Click here to view the website of Humphrey Hawksley, who may be able to visit the Graham Greene International Festival in October 2010, if his schedule permits.