by Rupert Wolfe Murray | 18 Jan, 2023 | Opinions
I wrote this blog post just after my father died, at home, on the west coast of Scotland, in January 2023.
I’m in a state of shock but also not surprised as he lived his life in a state of wild defiance of the conventions and norms of ordinary life, and hated the idea of being looked after or helped by others. He loved people but hated officialdom.
On the one hand I want to sum up his extraordinary and eccentric life — I want to explain his charm, his writings, his ability to listen to children, his interests, games, passions and collections — but I’m at a loss. I’m stuck. I have so much to say but at the same time I don’t want to write anything as I need time to process my confusion and grief.
This is where you come in. Perhaps you have a poignant memory of Angus Wolfe Murray, the author, publisher, film critic and specialist in the transportation of fine arts. Did you know him? Were you impressed by his conversation, style and unique outlook on life? Can you comment on his transition from the upper class values of his parents into the bohemian lifestyle he brought us up in?
Last time I made an appeal like this was just after my mother died in the summer of 2017. I wrote a short blog post asking for comments, anecdotes and memories about her and suddenly there were over 25 brilliant pieces of writing — many of which made their way into a little book we rushed into print for her memorial service. You can see the PDF version of it here.
So please add a comment below. And please realise that a sentence will do fine, pithy little statements can be great. Short is sweet and long is lovely. It’s all good. This is the place to share your memories, however fleeting or fragmented, of Angus Wolfe Murray.
And I hope to see you at his funeral, which will take place at 11am on the 9th of February in the Eastgate Theatre, Peebles, in the Scottish Borders. We want to get as many folk as possible there, to celebrate his love for people.
Postscript (several weeks later): I am bowled over by the incredible comments that have come in about our Dear Departed Dad. Thanks so much to you all; it’s not easy writing about such a complex character. These comments are giving us a new insight into a man who we took for granted, and also drove us crazy in his final years. I’m so proud he had such a positive impact on so many people’s lives. I think the most memorable quote about him is this: he was ‘a woodland faun in human frame’; a cricketer friend then added the quip “Did fauns wear frayed denim jeans…with “multi-coloured patches?”.
There’s a lot of cricketing stories here and one of the contributors, Tim Wilcock, wrote that “Angus told me once that he was at Eton with one Henry Blofeld.” As every cricketer will know, Blofeld went on to become a legendary cricket commentator for the BBC (and also the name of the Arch Villain in the James Bond books). Some years later Wilcock met “Blowers” and asked him if he remembered Angus Wolfe Murray. Of course he did, and said they played a match together at Lords. Wilcox then found an old record of the match, sent it to me, and I put it into this slideshow of my Dad-as-schoolboy-cricket-star with his brother Jimmy.
If you want to contact me, about any of this, just email me at wolfemurray [at] gmail.com. Lotsaluv, Rupert Wolfe Murray, Flore, Northampton Shire, January 2023
by Rupert Wolfe Murray | 11 Jan, 2022 | Journeys, Opinions
Daniel Craig was a good actor before he got turned into a bad-tempered robot for the Bond films. A great film he starred in, before the Bond franchise gobbled him up, was Layer Cake. It’s one of those clever-witty-vicious crime films that the English are quite good at. Daniel Craig plays a hip, likeable London-based cocaine dealer who does “one last job” before retiring. This is a tried and tested formula in film – the hero does one last job before dropping out of his life of crime – but, as you can imagine, there’s no way that the scriptwriters are going to let our hero retire quietly into wealthy obscurity.
I’m thinking about this plot because it’s a good way to explain why I moved to Bosnia Herzegovina. Although there are some big differences between me and Daniel Craig’s character – I’m not a bigshot coke dealer and not about to retire – there is a similarity which is that I’m trying to finish doing what I would call my “normal” work in consultancy, PR and publishing projects. In short, I’m doing one last job before getting into a life of independent travel, volunteering and writing books.
The job? Raising money to publish a book that contains a unique collection of posters that were made during the Bosnian war. There are a few Croatian and Serb posters but most of them are by Bosnian artists, graphic designers and various organisations that wanted to protest about their nation being ripped apart by the neighbours – as Poland was in 1939 as a result of the Nazi – Soviet pact. The author — Daoud Sarhandi — has assembled the war posters into chronological order and written long captions that tell the story of each one. The effect is a graphic history of the war and it’s relevant to young Bosnians as they don’t get taught about the Bosnian war in their schools — the issue is to recent, too close to the bone, too divisive — and all the young people I’ve met in Bosnia Herzegovina seem really keen to get the book, get an objective/graphic view of the war and learn from their parents’ mistakes. I interviewed over 30 young people in Sarajevo, Mostar and Tuzla and found a remarkable lack of hate towards the other ethnic groups in their country. This gives me a lot of hope.
The reason for telling you all this is because, just before leaving the UK, an English friend called Gwen asked me why. In particular, why will I be raising money for a book about posters that were made during the Bosnian War (1992 to 1995)? “If you’re going to raise money,” she said, “it would be good to know the background. Answering the ‘why’ question is a good place to start.” Gwen used to run environmental NGOS so she knows what she’s talking about when it comes to fundraising.
You might be wondering what it is about this Bosnian poster book that made me uproot myself from England, where I had a good life. The simple answer is that when Daoud Sarhandi told me that he’s working on this poster book I wanted to be part of it. My first response to hearing that he was working on a book of Bosnian War Posters I offered to fundraise for it. Illustrated books like this are very expensive to produce and getting some heavy-duty cash behind it is essential.
Having worked on many NGO and consultancy projects over the years I’ve developed a sort of sixth sense in knowing if a project is good or not. It’s a sort of instinct and is rather like that first impression one has upon meeting someone – is this person inspiring, or to be avoided? It’s the sort of instinct I used to ignore, only to later realise that “if only I’d listened to my gut instinct I wouldn’t be in this mess now.” I’ve worked on so many bad projects and it’s essential to avoid getting involved with one that will only bring frustration, as the people in charge are unable to listen to new ideas (this is perhaps the most common problem). Even if you’re getting well paid, you’ll probably lose about two years of your life working on it.
So, when Daoud said he’s re-doing his Bosnian poster book I instinctively took two decisions: to fundraise for it and to move to Bosnia Herzegovina. I knew there was no chance of raising money for this book in UK, where it would be competing with a million other good causes, and the only place I’d stand a chance is Sarajevo where they’d appreciate its relevance. The idea of hawking it round London and the big western capitals was deeply demotivating, and even if I did get a big grant I’d be subsequently beholden to the donor agency and drowned in their bureaucracy (foreign aid and development work, of which grant funds are part, has become depressingly bureaucratic). This book represents a part of Bosnia’s heritage – posters that were produced by over 40 Bosnian artists as a reaction to the war – so it makes sense that Bosnians fund it rather than one of the international grant funds. This book needs to develop its local roots rather than be another bright idea imposed from outside.
Daoud didn’t ask me to fundraise for it (and this, in itself, is a sign of a good project) but I knew the book needed it and assumed there would be nobody else vying for this non-job (i.e. voluntary) position. It was an instant, instinctive decision that became embedded in my plans for the future. It took me over 6 months to disentangle myself from a comfortable life in the UK: I sold my van, got rid of my precious touring bike, gave away my books and all the excess baggage one builds up – and above all made sure I wasn’t leaving any loose ends behind. I came to Bosnia Herzegovina at the end of July 2021 and don’t know how long I’ll stay. When people ask, I say, “for as long as it takes.”
What’s interesting for me in answering the question – why did I come to Bosnia Herzegovina? That instant decision to support the poster book, was buried deep under a whole pile of other stuff, like an important piece of furniture that’s somewhere under a house that had suddenly collapsed. I had to pick through the debris, sift through lots of other, more superficial, reasons for coming here (escaping from Brexit-land), in order to find that kernel of decision making that was at the heart of it. I’d written an earlier draft of this article, then discarded it in frustration as I hadn’t found the real reason. Now I realise that as soon as I took the decision to work on the poster book it immediately became part of my future plan – to move to Bosnia Herzegovina – but the actual decision making process was so quick and instinctive that I really struggled to find it when someone asked me the most simple of questions: why?
Another reason for moving to Bosnia Herzegovina is that I used to live here, just after the war, for two and a half years. It was a tale of riches to rags and back to riches. During the Bosnian War my NGO/charity, Scottish European Aid, grew huge in the Tuzla region, doing water supply infrastructure under the dynamic leadership of my brother Magnus. Although I was in charge of the NGO back in Scotland, we didn’t manage to get out hands on even 1% of the millions that Magnus was raising for his water engineering projects. I was like a waiter in a smart restaurant who handles big payments but gets paid peantus. So I resigned, got the bus to Sarajevo just after the war ended (winter 1995), spent my last pennies on getting a bus to Tuzla, where a friendly soul had offered accommodation. There’s nothing as motivating as being flat broke in a strange foreign city (ask any immigrant) and within a year I was making a fortune by writing, publishing and selling books to the vast American army that had just landed at Tuzla airport.
Making lots of money for me, myself and I doesn’t feel right so I set up a new NGO/charity with my wonderful mother and we distributed English language books to schools and libraries all over the land. For two glorious years we didn’t need to go cap-in-hand to the donor organisations as we were raising all the money we needed by selling my books to the NATO troops. The last project we did was to finance Daoud Sarhandi to drive around the country collecting Bosnian War posters from local artists, designers and printers. He did this with my very-well-organised ex wife, Alina, and a brilliant photographer called Stephen Gordon. I left Bosnia Herzegovina in early 1998 and never returned until now (2021). Coming back has a curious feeling of homecoming; the first week was a confusing rush of disjointed memories and new impressions.
Thinking about the difficulty of finding the real reason for coming here, and exposing my own decision making process, brings me back to that great English film Layer Cake. Criminal organisations have a strict policy of never keeping a record of their decision making process, for the simple reason that it can land them in jail. Everything is done verbally on the basis of trust (“honour among thieves”). One of the best things about being a non-criminal is that I can be open about all aspects of my life without fearing the consequences. I’ve got nothing to hide.
If you’d like to see some samples from our poster book, which we’ll be publishing next year, follow this link: My Publications | Daoud Sarhandi (jimdosite.com)
I took the photo that illustrates this article in Sarajevo in July 2021. Bosnian Kingdom is the name of a shop.
As always, I’d be very grateful for any comments — however negative, long or crazy they may be. The truth is that us wannabe writers couldn’t go on without feedback.
I first published this article in August 2021, but re-posted it in January 2022 with some revisions. It still stands as the most relevant article about why I’m currently based in Bosnia Herzegovina.
by Rupert Wolfe Murray | 22 May, 2021 | Opinions
If I was planning to invade Russia with a massive land army (Napoleon went in with 635,000 men and emerged with about 20,000) I would set off in the middle of winter.
“But zat is madness your Highness,” they would say. “Even the simplest peasant in from Bordeaux knows that Russia in winter is well below freezing. Zey will turn to ice. Zey will die like flies. It cannot be done…”
With a knowing smile I would calmly explain my plan: by setting off in winter everyone would make sure that not only were the men suitably attired; but they’d be well trained and we’d make damn sure we had the right supplies.
Not only would we be prepared for winter – we would learn from it and eventually master it, as the Finns did when their small force beat the Soviet Union’s massive invading army in 1940. It would give us time to deal with the myriad of unforeseen problems that would emerge, such as an effective defence when camping out in the frozen wilderness.
And we’d learn from the mistakes of previous invading dictators by not assuming the whole thing would have succeeded by the onset of winter.
And when the Spring came it would be met with such delight and relief that the whole army would get a morale boost. Onwards we would march, to Moscow and beyond…
My own winter campaign
Right now I’m in Brighton and it’s freezing. It’s not minus twenty but I wish it was, as then there would be no moisture in the air; dry cold makes me feel inspired and motivated while the damp cold of Britain is the worst.
The temperature hovers just above ten degrees Celsius and what makes it miserable is that it’s Spring and that means the heating is off. Are British Springs always so cold? (I don’t know, I’ve spent most of my life abroad). I’d rather be in a Russian snowdrift.
Moan, groan, grumble.
My plan for the rest of this year is to go to Bosnia and help re-publish an amazing book of posters that were produced during the Bosnian war (1992 to 1995). The book is called Evil Doesn’t Live Here and it was first published almost 20 years ago; but now it’s out of print and we want to make sure it gets into the hands of young Bosnians all over the world – as it’s an important part of their history and there’s a risk that this war will be forgotten as the Serb/Russian propaganda machine has never stopped pumping out alternative facts about what really happened there.
As soon as I get my second Covid-19 injection I plan to go to Bosnia and get all this organised, and hopefully I can get there in the summer when the weather in that part of the world is amazing; and get the whole project done and dusted before their continental (i.e. bloody freezing) winter sets in. If I do get stuck there next winter it won’t be too bad as they have dry cold rather than our insidious, soul-destroying damp version.
As soon as I post this I’m going on a weekend hike along the south coast, to the Romney Marshes which is a large chunk of wilderness between Brighton and Dover. My flatmate asked why I’m going camping when the weather forecast is bad and I said the only way to deal with shitty weather is walk into it. If you try and hide from it, as I’ve been doing all week, huddling over my laptop, it creeps up on you and gets into your bones. By walking all day you generate enough heat to stay warm in all weathers – even a Russian winter.
Let me know how you handle the weather in the comment box below. Even the smallest comment is most welcome. Lotsaluv, Rupert
by Rupert Wolfe Murray | 13 Mar, 2021 | Opinions
Writing about a book of essays is hard because each essay is a complex entity unto itself; each one has a brilliant idea that I’d like to write about – but then I read the next one and I forget what I was so interested in a few pages back.
Suffice to say that this book analyses the writing of stories and is made up of talks the great Mr Pullman gave (I’m not sure why this collection of transcribed talks is described as a book of essays, but that’s neither here nor there.) I think this book is mainly of interest to people who write stories, but if you’re a Philip Pullman fan and would like to know more about the ideas in His Dark Materials trilogy, then this is the book for you. But it’s quite long and pretty heavy at times.
The bit I want to focus on in this review comes from the chapter called I Must Create a System (subtitle: A Moth’s-eye view of William Blake). One problem with this book is that Pullman describes himself as being a lowbrow intellectual and yet he’s read, and re-read, the likes of Milton and Blake – ancient poets that I’d heard of but certainly never read. If he’s a lowbrow then I’m a Neanderthal (one effect of reading this book is that it makes me feel rather ignorant).
I’m not going to go into the ideas of William Blake or this review would go on forever, but I’ll give you a relevant quote from Pullman: “William Blake, as we know, had such extraordinary and penetrating insights into the nature of religion, and expressed them with such force and clarity, that it’s always worth looking at what he has to say on the matter.”
All I want to do here is give you one amazing quote which shows a brilliant way of writing, or “literary device” to the highbrow. The context of this quote is systems; in other words systems for thinking about life and for writing stories. Christianity is a system in that it explains life, as is Marxism, Feminism and – a particularly relevant one today as it describes an ancient form of conspiracy theory – Gnosticism.
This whole discussion comes from the following line by William Blake:
“I must create a system, or be enslav’d by another Mans…”
When I first read that line I thought Pullman would write about how modern man is trapped (enslav’d) in economic systems of work and debt – but he didn’t. He’s more interested in systems that help people write stories and think about life.
The quote I offer you here makes the idea of systems seem more approachable, in that (unlike religions or ideologies) it doesn’t claim to have all the answers.
Here’s the quote (by Pullman, not Blake):
“So each one of us has a whole complex of attitudes and experiences which, if they’re not as coherent as a worked-out system, function in a similar way. They provide the solid and unquestioned support for all the work we build on top of them…
“It might seem from the outside like a haphazardly acquired combination of prejudice, ignorance, random experience, scraps of cracker-barrel sententiousness, things they were taught before they were seven, superstition, sentimentality, wishful thinking and saloon-bar knowingness; a gimcrack, jerry-built, patchwork thing, crawling with dry rot, with rats in the basement and death-watch beetle in the attic, with staircases that lead nowhere and corridors blocked off by fallen masonry, with broken windows banging in the wind and great holes in the roof letting in the rain.” (from Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman, page 391).
What I love about that passage is how beautifully it flows; it’s fun to read and each one of the items listed could open up another story.
What’s brilliant about this literary device is that you can use it to summarise a large number of complex things. One of the problems I find with writing an article is that I’ve got too much to say: pages of notes, website links, facts, figures, opinions, and quotes – all of which are clamouring for entry into the promised land (my article).
But, as St Peter might say at the Pearly Gates, only a few are allowed in. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by it all and forget what I was writing about in the first place; I forget that I wanted to make a point and should be using facts, figures, and quotes to back up my point.
A final word to end this article: in case you were wondering that Philip Pullman is some sort of new-age, born-again Christian who writes fiction to peddle religious messages – rest assured. He went through a short religious period when a teenager and has been a sceptic ever since, but an enquiring sceptic who searches through religious texts for a better understanding of how their systems works – some of which is put to work in His Dark Materials.
This quote, from the essay Talents and Virtues, sums up his approach rather well:
“So when I say ‘theocracy’ in the context of what I’m saying tonight, I’m not limiting the term to those states that base their authority on the existence of a supernatural creator. What I’m talking about is the tendency of human beings to gather power to themselves in the name of something that may not be questioned, and to justify what they do in terms of absolutes: absolute truth; absolute goodness; absolute evil; absolute hatred; if you’re not with us you’re against us.” (from Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman, page 407).
Although Pullman is right to condemn the tendency to use religion to control other people, isn’t he throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Don’t religions have some spiritual and social value?
A final observation: the final part of this quote shows how the colon and semi colon should be used; it’s one of the few things I remember from school; and Pullman uses it here to present a list; this is quite rare as my impression is that people use these punctuation marks in a way that wasn’t sanctioned in school, like I am doing here, as a means of separating up sentences; I’ve been told this is not good practice so I better stop here.
This review was also published on Goodreads: Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman | Goodreads
by Rupert Wolfe Murray | 14 Feb, 2021 | Opinions
The National newspaper in Scotland just published my comment piece on the hypocrisy of Scotland’s leadership when it comes to climate change…You can read it here (without having to subscribe)…
The Scottish government is ignoring a once-in-a-century opportunity: leading the transition to a carbon zero economy. By going along with the business-as-usual model, as perfected by Westminster, Scotland is allowing itself to be led by the charming lobbyists of big business.
The SNP like to talk up their environmental credentials. Their policy says a lot about “ambition”, plenty about cutting CO2 emissions (due to the closure of two coal-fired power stations), lots of breathless news about small “pilot” projects, but nothing (that I can find) on changing the status quo.
Scottish news shows a government that lacks the courage to implement its own rhetoric: The Herald reports that North Sea oil “flaring” pumps out 4m tonnes of CO2 a year; and the Climate Change Committee, which advises the UK government, says that Scotland’s targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions are “fantastic” but Holyrood is unlikely to achieve them.
The Scottish government isn’t alone in ignoring the problem. A new report found that oil and gas subsidies amount to hundreds of billions of pounds a year: “Fossil fuel production subsidies – such as those used by the US, UK, Russia, China and the EU – make fossil fuel industries more profitable by reducing their costs, boosting the returns to elites and helping sustain their political power.”
With a hostile press, political challenges, financial pressures, not to mention the pandemic, is it any surprise that climate change policy is left on the shelf? Surely this can be prioritised when Scotland is independent?
The time for leadership is now!
I would argue that now is the ideal time to stake Scotland’s claim as a global leader in climate change transition – especially with the next big climate jamboree (COP26) slated for Glasgow.
Currently there is a vacancy for the top job of “Global Leader in Climate Change Transition”. We need a national leader with the courage, conviction, focus and determination of Greta Thunberg. Someone who calls out the greenwash and token gestures of industry and government.
Most citizens of the world now realise that we must change our ways if we are to avoid climate catastrophe, and all governments pay lip service to it. What’s missing is one government actively putting it into practice; to demonstrate that it is possible to aggressively take on big industry.
Perhaps the most difficult challenge is for governments to tell its citizens the truth; that our way of heating, eating, dressing, and travelling is killing the planet. The good news is that each carbon cutting alternative – such as renewable energy and vegan food – represents a sector of new business growth.
What do you think? Do you agree there is a huge opportunity for a national leader to take the lead when it comes to climate change? Could it be Scotland? Could it be your national leader? Will it be anyone or will we continue to pay lip service as our future burns?
I’d be most grateful if you left a comment below here.
by Rupert Wolfe Murray | 31 Jan, 2021 | Opinions
I first published this article in 2021 but now (2025) it still seems relevant.
Here’s the article:
During the 2014 referendum I was against independence but now I’m in the unclaimed centre ground, the no-man’s land, the “Don’t Knows”. I’m open to persuasion.
I could have been a Yes voter first time round but two things put me off: Alex Salmond’s bulldozing through of Donald Trump’s application to destroy a Site of Special Scientific Interest, to create a golf course near Aberdeen; and the fact that my questions about Scottish independence were met with abuse on social media.
For many years I worked on EU-funded projects in Central and Eastern Europe and in 2006 I spent a frantic month helping the Romanian government (successfully) negotiate the most difficult part of EU-accession: the chapter on Justice and Home Affairs. I naively thought this experience would be of interest to Yes supporters, but whenever I asked how Scotland would re-join the EU I got shot down in flames (this comment I wrote in Huffington Post caused outrage on social networks).
New Questions
This time round Brexit and the shambolic way the British government have managed the pandemic has pushed me back into the centre.
But my questions are different now: how will Nicola Sturgeon handle Donald Trump in the future; and can Scotland show genuine leadership regarding climate change?
Although the SNP distanced themselves from Trump after his 2016 presidential election victory, they are currently faced with an embarrassing question: will the Scottish Government seek an Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO)? Where did he get the cash to buy two Scottish golf courses? If they acted on this issue, the SNP would show that they don’t tolerate rich crooks.
My biggest concern is the climate emergency which is more serious than Brexit and the Covid 19 pandemic combined. If the SNP could show any real leadership on the issue I would be their biggest fan. But the Scottish government just follow the tired old formula used by Boris Johnson: recognise the problem, set up commissions, agree targets, fund small pilot projects – kick the issue along the road, claim success and, above all, do nothing to upset the status quo.
The Scottish government’s web page on climate change claims it is, “winning international respect for our ambition and leadership on climate change. Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions have already been reduced by almost half from the 1990 baseline.”
But the latest report by the Climate Change Committee says two thirds of these reductions in carbon emissions were due to closing a few coal-fired power stations, and: “Emissions from all other sectors outside of electricity generation have fallen by just 14%.”
The real elephant in the room is Big Oil. As with Trump, it comes down to raw political courage: will the SNP have the guts to stand up to the oil companies and – equally difficult – tell the people of Scotland that we all need to start making plans for a carbon-free future?
Writing in The National, Mark Ruskell says New Zealand recently ended new offshore oil and gas exploration and the government was rewarded at the polls: “Jacinda Ardern won a landslide and her Green Party allies increased their share of the vote while climate-ambivalent parties saw their vote share decrease.”
Perhaps the Scottish government could be the first European country that tells its people “Enough! No more oil! No more plastic! No more pollution! On your bikes!” That sort of leadership would inspire the continent and even big business would have to comply.
The one good thing about Covid 19 is that it has shown what governments can do – close down whole economies – if they feel the problem is serious enough. Whichever European leader has the guts to make this call will instantly become a leader in the new green economic revolution.
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This article was also published in the (pro-independence) Scottish newspaper, The National, in 2021. Here’s the link.
It was written in parallel with another article I wrote on the issue: Could Scotland Provide the Leadership Needed to Save the Planet?
What do you think about Scottish independence? I’d love to know, even if you live on the other side of the world. Please leave a comment below.
