Good journalists are endlessly curious and should be endlessly enthusiastic. My features run the gamut from politics to travel writing. They all have one thing in common – to transmit that enthusiasm to the reader.
Gus Coral and the Stones for Jewish News June 2025 One of Gus Coral’s children casually asked her father what he intended to do with the bundles of photographs sitting, untouched and unexplored for decades, under his bed. In fact, Coral admits today, the pictures were not just “a closely guarded secret”, but a little […]
For the Jewish Chronicle March 2025 The human rights lawyer Philippe Sands KC has a storied reputation for forensic detective work in his books piecing together the consequences of the Holocaust — East West Street and The Ratline. Now, in 38 Londres Street, Sands once again dips in to his personal history and his in-depth […]
For JN Life magazine Every time I am presented with another book about the Holocaust, I think there can’t possibly be anything new to learn. But in Keren Blankfeld’s mesmerising Lovers in Auschwitz, a masterful account of an extraordinary relationship in the worst death camp of all, there is plenty to learn and marvel at. […]
For Jewish News Jan 15 2025 In recent years there has been a discussion, both inside and outside the Jewish community, about how to talk to children about the Holocaust. The subject is repeatedly aired at this time of year, with Holocaust Memorial Day on the national and international agenda. Children, naturally curious, will ask […]
For the Jewish Chronicle January 2025 I admit, I approached Adrian Tinniswood’s The Power and the Glory: The Country House Before the Great War, with a certain amount of trepidation. I felt like a despised day tripper tourist seeking to unlock the secrets of the Great and the Good. I need not have worried. Tinniswood, […]
The Brutalist January 2025 for Jewish News Let’s be honest — a film about brutalist architecture does not sound terribly appealing. But Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist — which won him and his star, Adrien Brody, three Golden Globes this week for best drama, best director and best actor respectively — is an extraordinary creation. The […]
Nir Kedar for Jewish News Life mag November 2024 We are only a few minutes into our Zoom interview when Professor Nir Kedar’s screen goes dark and, apologetically, he says there are sirens and he needs to run to a shelter. This is the sad reality of life in Israel today — but the remarkable […]
For Jewish News magazine December 2024 We are inside what is, for me, unfamiliar territory — a boxing gym in the Sheffield suburb of Darnall, home to a large Muslim population. About 30 small boys (and one little girl dressed in Barbie pink from head to toe) are variously jumping in star shapes, practising sit-ups, […]
For Jewish News September 2024 The tormented faces of the young survivors of the Nova festival massacre last October stay with the viewer, long after the conclusion of Yariv Mozer’s painful and powerful film, We Will Dance Again. Scheduled to be screened in the prime time Storyville strand on BBC2 on September 26, the film […]
For the JC April 2024 “He looked me over, assessed my wristwatch, considered my shoes and the likely cost of my hairdo, and tried to decide if I came from a family worth talking to; such is Italy”. In one crisp sentence, Derek B Miller sets the reader off on a magical mystery tour, revolving […]