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Ian Birrell

Columnist & Foreign Correspondent

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Arts / Books / Europe / Russia

Notes from a cruel climate

Published by The Observer (23rd February, 2020) The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts (Doubleday) Sophy Roberts’s first glimpse of the Sea of Okhotsk was from beside […]

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Arts / Music

Whitney’s back from the dead. But is her hologram tour a joyful tribute or ghoulish exploitation?

Published by The Mail on Sunday (16th February, 2020) Whitney Houston will soon be back on stage. Tickets are being sold for what is billed as the first […]

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Arts / Books / Europe / Germany

How would you respond to the rise of Nazism?

Published by UnHerd (3rd January, 2020) My book of this decade might seem a strange choice. It was written in 1939. The events it describes began unfolding more […]

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Arts / Books / South Korea / World

Glimpse into a murky world

Published by The Spectator (26th October, 2019) The Killing in the Consulate: Investigating the Life and Death of Jamal Khashoggi by Jonathan Rugman ((Simon & Schuster) The story […]

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Arts / Film / Syria / Technology / World

Have we forgotten Syria?

Published by UnHerd (20th September, 2019) A few weeks ago, I bumped into Omran, a musician friend, who was serving salads, humous and pastries in a Lebanese cafe. […]

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Africa / Arts / Mali / Music

Singing songs in harmony

Published by The i paper (15th July, 2019) Fifteen years ago I travelled to the world’s most astonishing music festival, held in a Tuareg village 55 miles from the fabled […]

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Arts / Europe / European Union

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye?

Published by Damn (18th April, 2019) It seems strange to recall that when I was growing up in the suburbs of London almost half a century ago, the […]

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Arts / Music / Syria / World

Hello Syria! Joss Stone plays the world’s most unlikely gig

Published by The Mail on Sunday (3rd March, 2019) When British singer Joss Stone, barefoot as usual, walked on stage and greeted the crowd, she began one of […]

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Arts / Books / Health / Policy / Syria / World

The doctor stitching up Syria’s wounded

Published by The Times (2nd March, 2019) War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line by David Nott (Picador) David Nott was about to stitch up a vein in the […]

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Arts / Disability / Film / Technology

The invisibility of disability on the screen

Published by UnHerd (10th January, 2019) It is ironic that Bryan Cranston has been forced to defend his right to portray a person with disabilities when promoting his […]

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Arts / Books / Health / Policy

We need to care about nurses

Published by The ipaper (24th December, 2018) She was a straight A student who had just become a teenager when paralysed from the neck down in a car […]

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Africa / Arts / Immigration / Music / Policy

Britain is open for business? Not for African artists

Published by The Guardian (27th July, 2018) Moonchild Sanely oozes star quality. When musicians from Africa Express – the organisation I co-founded – went to South Africa earlier […]

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Ian Birrell is an award-winning columnist, foreign correspondent, feature writer and investigative journalist. He is contributing editor of The Mail on Sunday, a weekly columnist in The i Paper and writes frequently for other papers and platforms. He is also co-founder with Damon Albarn of Africa Express, the acclaimed collaborative music project. (Pictured: Talking to refugees in Iraq fleeing Islamic State)... Read More.

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