Cambridge Scholars Publishing Images in Words: Only History Exists

This book of William Mallinson’s poetry and prose, and a small amount of writings by some family members, is a vehicle to demonstrate that only history―in its purest form, the past―exists. Bowing to Oscar Wilde’s dictum that most people are other people (even if they do not know it), its comments on each poem, article or story lead to the book’s conclusion that the present cannot exist, since it becomes the past as it happens, while the future is only in the mind. Many of the poems and stories were written on impulse, inspired by various events, but also, subliminally, by writers and poets such as Henry Williamson, Ted Hughes and George Orwell. The book briefly evaluates the circumstances that led to each poem and story. Refreshingly, it avoids textual analysis and categorisation, believing that poetry does not lend itself to analysis, since it is essentially personal, and thus connected to the heart which, whatever the opinions of certain psychologists, can never be encapsulated in their neatly packaged models, even if they use the word ‘psyche’ instead of ‘heart’. The same applies to some of the prose pieces. Whether we are reading the author’s ‘Trout’, ‘Dolphin’, ‘Frog’, ‘Horse’, ‘Octopus’ or ‘The Au-pair’, the reader will be able to escape from the stiflingly overworked and stilted ‘post-modernist’ literature that has assailed our natural sensitivities to the point of killing them. Above all, the book is a foray into free writing, and will take the reader back to childhood through the imagery evoked and strip off the layers of self-deception and falsehoods that have accumulated like dust and mud. Review "In a radical departure from his previous works, former diplomat and historian William Mallinson has produced a book of poetry and prose (which includes a few contributions from his family members). He describes his latest offering as “letting off steam” in an age of self-obsessed social media and intrusive political correctness. Many of the poems and stories were written on impulse, inspired by various events, but also, subliminally, by writers and poets such as Henry Williamson, Ted Hughes and George Orwell. The book briefly evaluates the circumstances that led to each poem and story but avoids textual analysis. Above all, the book is a foray into free writing, taking the reader back to childhood through the imagery evoked and stripping off layers of self-deception."Password (magazine of the Foreign Office Association) April 2019 About the Author William Mallinson, Professor of Political Ideas and Institutions at Università Guglielmo Marconi, Italy, is a former Member of Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Service who left to study for, and was awarded, his PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science’s Department of International History. Following a period in business as European Public Affairs Manager at ITT’s European Headquarters in Brussels, he turned his attention to the academic world, playing a pivotal role in introducing Britain’s first Honours degree in Public Relations. Since 1994, when he was awarded a Greek Government scholarship, he has been perusing British Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence, Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet archives, under the general rubric of Anglo-Greek relations during the Cold War. He has also published several articles in the press, and spoken at numerous conferences. He is an occasional lecturer at the Greek National Defence School, particularly on Britain and Russia/the USSR. He speaks, reads and writes French, German, Italian, Dutch, and Greek. His publications include Public Lies and Private Truths (1996; 2000); Portrait of an Ambassador (1998); Cyprus: A Modern History (2005); From Neutrality to Commitment: Dutch Foreign Policy, NATO and European Integration (2010); Britain and Cyprus: Key Themes and Documents since World War Two (2011); The FCO, Hegemonolingualism, and the End of Britain’s Freedom (2014); Thrice a Stran