Bøger af Ross Howard

We were advised that French was the language of the true elite when embarking on the Grand Tour. We were further advised that if one was residing in the British Isles (as we were), departure should be from Dover in order that one could go directly to Paris, where the traveller might undertake lessons in French, and pass the time in dancing, fencing and riding and otherwise become immersed in the experience of 'courtly behaviour and fashion'. In the circumstances we should have felt guilty about departing from Portsmouth and arriving in Cherbourg with our first stop a rather seedy caravan park. The last time I received lessons in French, was when grappling with conjugated French verbs in a class of low-brows that felt up-lifted when described by the teacher as a bunch of brainless thugs. Unbeknowst at the time, we would later be given the opportunity to dance on French soil, while acknowledging that the cut of our dancing dress may not have passed muster by the Paris dancing masters. As to fencing and riding, the last time this was countenanced was the fencing undertaken to keep wandering wildlife out of the garden and as to riding, I take poetic licence and include the riding of my trusty cycle. Our journeys, taken in the footsteps of those 18th Century 'young men of means', took a variety of forms, followed a variety of routes, and were undertaken for a variety of reasons. The reasons encompassed leisure, business, family, curiosity, education and pleasure. The forms included boats, planes, trains and diverse automobiles. The routes ranged through France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, the Czech Republic and Hungary. We sometimes forgot we were the foreigners, but as we didn't reject the food, ignore the customs, or avoid the people, all our experiences were positive and we hope those we met in that mosaic of nations felt the same way. There is little doubt that travel can influence us in a variety of ways, but often we do not acknowledge the humility that should be embodied in travel, which underscores what a tiny place we occupy in the world.

A tale of travels through Pakistan, Xinjiang (China), Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The story considers the current social and recent social, religious, political and economic context and overlays the journey with the 19th Century strategic rivalry in Central Asia between Russia and Great Britain, the so-called Great Game.

This is a journey through a landscape of contested lands, populated with the remnants of invading armies, the rise and fall of empires and conflict between competing religious beliefs. This is a landscape featuring some of the most ancient structures built by man.These are lands that reflect the burden of ethnic differences, which have erupted into conflict on those occasions when the pursuit of power of the seeking of blame overwhelms the natural rights of the people. We meet people who have enjoyed good times and endured the hard times, sometimes described as the Terrible Times. But they have survived and those who have suffered have hope for better times.

A narrative of journey's to the Inner and Outer Hebrides of Scotland and a cycle tour through the Yorkshire Dales. Notable destinations included, Skye, Benbecula, South & North Uist, Harris, Lewis and the Isle of St Kilda, Great Britain's westernmost point. Dunscaith Castle, Iona, Elgo and the Ross of Mull were among the high points of the journeys

This is a journey through one of two remaining Stalinist nations in the world: Turkmenistan. The other is North Korea. Both countries compete for the lowest international ranking in terms of human rights for their people. Turkmenistan is a tribal nation that fell into the grip of the Soviet Union in the 1920's and following collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991, joined other Soviet satellites in securing independence. It was a time when committed senior communists quickly converted to capitalism and competed in a made scramble for power. Today, it is a country moulded by the idiosyncratic views of its first President-for-Life who established a Personality Cult to consolidate his power and an iron fist to maintain that power. He was a President who issued a range of bizarre edicts including naming months of the year after his family, closing all the hospitals outside of the capital, banning gold teeth and expecting children to spend more time in the fields rather than at school.His successor seems no less enamoured with the governance model established by his predecessor and the attendance at rallies devoted to eulogising the President are virtually compulsory.The capital, Ashgabat, appears in the Guinness Book of Records as the most 'marbled city in the world' and the country is populated with numerous golden statues and tributes to the President, past and present. One presidential statue of gold rotated so that it continuously faced the sun. The marble and the monuments are funded by large reserves of oil and gas. The Karakum Desert occupies 80 per cent of the country and population centres are clustered around the limited sources of water which are under constant threat.We visit ancient sites and visit the several oases fed by rivers originating in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Our journey takes us along the Amu Darya, the principal river in Central Asia and the source of the Karakum Canal, the longest, navigable canal in the world, providing precious water to numerous locations throughout the country. Crossing the border to Iran, we enter one of the worlds few religious theocratic regimes where the Supreme Leader speaks directly to God and to question his message is a form of blasphemy, which can attract the penalty of death.But it is also a country where the people are amongst the most hospitable to travellers and they do not necessarily accept the wisdom of the clerics as a guide to their future or as a measure of their past.We visit a number of religious sites and learn more about Zoroastrianism, the religion that preceded Christianity by 500 years and Islam by over a thousand years.We learn about the martyrs, those who died during the Iran-Iraq War to defend the clerics and sustain their power who, in turn, were able to organise ready access to Paradise for their supreme sacrifice.We visit a number of locations in the east of the country including the Kalutes and the hottest place on earth with temperatures of over 70 degrees centigrade.We experience the qanats, the unique and ancient model for moving water underground for vast distances allowing desert villages to flourish and caravanseries to operate in support of ancient travellers.We move to the north and the Caspian Coast and visit the Castles of the Assassins and experience the differences between the southern deserts and the fertile lands and unique settlements along the coast.This is a journey of contrasts. Contrasts in geography and the interaction between the people and those who govern them. Contrasts between what those who govern believe and what those who are governed believe.

The narrative is of travels through Tajikistan, the poorest country economically in Central Asia. As the Soviet Union disintegrated, the economy collapsed, the people suffered extreme privation and large elements of the country reverted to what became known as a "yak economy". Shortly after the declaration of independence in 1991, the country descended into Civil War, with open hostilities between the warring factions only coming to an end in 1997. The country is still recovering from the economic devastation wrought by the conflict and today, over half the population is deemed to be in poverty, surviving on an income equivalent to or less than US$2.00 per day. Tajikistan is the smallest nation in Central Asia with over 50 per cent of the land-mass being more than 3,000 metres above sea level. It is also the most water rich country with lakes, major glaciers and more than 900 of its rivers over 10 kilometres in length. The journey follows the border with Afghanistan and traverses the High Pamirs and the so-called Pamir Knot. This term identifies the junction of the Himalaya, Karakoram, Tian Shan, Kunlun and Hindu Kush mountain ranges. Collectively, these mountains form the roof of the world. The ethnic composition of a population of 8 million is 60 per cent Tajik, who include the Pamiris who occupy much of the Pamir region, followed by 23 per cent Uzbek. The balance is made up of Russian, Kyrgyz and several other smaller minorities. The majority of Tajiks are Sunni Muslims, while the Pamiris are almost exclusvely followers of the Ishmaeli sect of Shia. Tajikistan is a secular republic and elections are held for the presidency and the parliament. However, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the system has been dominated by the same power structure, and Emomalii Rahmon, the President, came to power in 1994 following a disputed election, and has remained in place through a sequence of similarly disputed ballots. His regime is seen to be corrupt and he has been described as running the country for his own pesonal profit and is prepared to use threats and intimidation to remain in power. The narrative considers the issues of corruption and poverty and how the majority of people were focused on survival and didn't wish to be distracted by those things over which they had no control. However, they do know that the aspirations they have for their children and the future will not come to pass unless the constraining knot of poverty, dictatorship and corruption is loosened and brought undone. Only then with the human spirit prevail.

Gaggle of Fools brings together the confused thinking of a bunch of confused people, some of whom are reclining in a luxurious rest home. Each of those fools have made a contribution to this sordid tale that will take you across the labyrinth of London in pursuit of a would-be if-he-could-be terrorist. This miscreant had emerged from the depths of the Russian steppes leaving behind him a confusion of plots and sub-plots entangled with the nubile flexibility of a nearly international Russian gymnast. But our hero is on the track of his long-lost love and will undertake any task necessary to bringing her back into his skinny arms. Will he be successful? Let us know if you find out.

This is a journey through Jordan, Syria and includes a short dash to Beirut. The illustrated narrative looks at both the present day and historical events that have contributed to the way the people are, how they seem themselves and how they see others. A more recent context is the turmoil in the Arab nations across the Middle East and the progressive removal of yesterday's tyrants and dictators.

We were advised that French was the language of the true elite when embarking on the Grand Tour. We were further advised that if one was residing in the British Isles (as we were), departure should be from Dover in order that one could go directly to Paris, where the traveller might undertake lessons in French, and pass the time in dancing, fencing and riding and otherwise become immersed in the experience of 'courtly behaviour and fashion'. In the circumstances we should have felt guilty about departing from Portsmouth and arriving in Cherbourg with our first stop a rather seedy caravan park.The last time I received lessons in French, was when grappling with conjugated French verbs in a class of low-brows that felt up-lifted when described by the teacher as a bunch of brainless thugs.Unbeknowst at the time, we would later be given the opportunity to dance on French soil, while acknowledging that the cut of our dancing dress may not have passed muster by the Paris dancing masters.As to fencing and riding, the last time this was countenanced was the fencing undertaken to keep wandering wildlife out of the garden and as to riding, I take poetic licence and include the riding of my trusty cycle.Our journeys, taken in the footsteps of those 18th Century 'young men of means', took a variety of forms, followed a variety of routes, and were undertaken for a variety of reasons.The reasons encompassed leisure, business, family, curiosity, education and pleasure. The forms included boats, planes, trains and diverse automobiles. The routes ranged through France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, the Czech Republic and Hungary.We sometimes forgot we were the foreigners, but as we didn't reject the food, ignore the customs, or avoid the people, all our experiences were positive and we hope those we met in that mosaic of nations felt the same way. There is little doubt that travel can influence us in a variety of ways, but often we do not acknowledge the humility that should be embodied in travel, which underscores what a tiny place we occupy in the world.

The assassination of a Russian investigative journalist, triggers an investigation that leads through a labyrinth of corruption involving senior members of several Russian government ministries.The investigation by the Moscow police seeks to identify the killer, the paymaster and the secret. Unrelated to events in Moscow and unbeknown to the British authorities, a small Islamist group was planning a terrorist act against an unknown facility in London. That such an event was being planned only emerged when the group approached the IRA to access a cache of explosives. The Moscow investigation identifies the assassin and the British authorities identify a key member of the terrorist group. They are the same person, Imran Sardalov, although both groups remain oblivious to the other's investigation. Sardalov is a professional assassin. If the money is right he will carry out a killing, regardless of the target. Unknown to the Islamists, he has been using them as a cover for some years and the real purpose of his accompanying them to London is to fulfil a contract to assassinate a Russian dissident who has sought protection from the British. The British track Sardalov through Chechnya and over the Caucasus Mountains into Georgia. He eludes them and arrives in London. Moscow, unaware of Sardalov's whereabouts turn their attention to those who paid the assassin and the nature of the corruption. They also find corruption within their own organization, placing themselves at risk of retribution from the corrupters. London focuses on frustrating the terrorist act before it occurs.They have the terrorist group under close surveillance, however, they suddenly lose contact. The group had become suspicious and moved without warning. On arriving in London, Sardalov ignores the ambitions of the terrorist group and focuses on the elimination of the Russian dissident, who is under government protection. Each of the separate strands in Moscow and London slowly come together with dire consequences and it is only when these strands come to finality does it become known that the assassin and link to the Islamist group are the same person.

These travels describe an Antarctic adventure through the wild Southern Ocean to the Ross Sea the so-called Heart of Antarctica and the furthest south you can travel by boat. This is the heartland of the region first explored by Scott and his compatriots before their untimely disaster. On the other side of the southern continent we visit those places put on the map by the intrepid whalers who roamed the southern seas. This is Shackleton country and we visit South Georgia and Elephant Island made famous by the heroic exploits of Shackleton and his party and then move on to the sublime beauty of the Antarctic Peninsula.

We follow Ahmed Taseer, a boy from an isolated mountain village located in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan. Before forcible conversion to Islam in the 19th Century, the region was known as Kafiristan, land of the Kafirs, the unbelievers.The story extends over a period of about 20 years, during which Ahmed's friend Yusuf, a recent orphan to be adopted by Ahmed's family, is seized by the Taliban to become a suicide bomber. This prompts Ahmed and his friend Haziz to retaliate by locating the Taliban base and guiding a US drone that resuls in destruction of the base.The ruling family in the village are the Durrani. They collaborate with the Taliban and form part of the Taliban's opium distribution network. Ahmed's father represents the villagers in a land dispute with the Durrani. In a separate incident Ahmed's sister is raped and beaten by a member of that clan. Ahmed's father is killed when seeking justice for his daughter. Threatened by the Durrani, Ahmed flees the village with his mother and injured sister and, under cover of darkness, crosses the border into the Kalash Valleys, a non-Muslim area of Pakistan from which his mother's family originated. During their journey to the Kalash, Ahmed's sister dies from her injuries.After ensuring his mother's safety and security with the Kalash, Ahmed moves on to Peshawar and pays a people smuggler for a journey to Australia. He ends up in a detention centre for 18 months before being released into the community. During this process he meets and works with a group of welcoming Australians at a building site. They provide him with insights about his new country and he becomes aware that they are all refugees of one kind or another.He is ambivalent about religion but sometimes attends the mosque where he inadvertently becomes involved with a small group of men who are planning a terrorist act on Australian soil. Simultaneously he becomes romantically involved with a fellow student at the college. With his girlfriend Emily's support, he informs the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) of the budding terrorist group and works with ASIO to bring the group undone.Emily, like Ahmed, is similarly conflicted about religion and they discuss their respective doubts and, together, develop a view that puts moral values before religious rituals and beliefs. On graduation, Ahmed and Emily go their separate ways. She takes up an internship with a legal firm in Melbourne. He accepts an engineering traineeship with a large mining company and moves to Western Australia. There he meets Sima a young woman who is part of the Shia Hazara community in Perth. Like Ahmed, Sima's family departed Afghanistan as refugees.As a spin-off from his association with ASIO, Ahmed is approached by the Australian Security Intelligence Service (ASIS) to help with tracking a terrorist group in Quetta, Pakistan. He accepts and undertakes the necessary training. Unknown to ASIS, Ahmed's decision to become involved was due primarily to his desire to "complete some unfinished business". He wished to clear the past and move on.Ahmed travels to Quetta and, through several steps, he locates the ASIS targets and arranges their elimination. Ahmed then drops out of sight and returns to his home village and resolves his unfinished business before returning to his new life.

Egypt and Turkey each have a surfeit of grand archaeological sites that have excited travellers over the millenia. Being as they are at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa the sites reflect a myriad of influences and the consequences of competing invaders and civilisations that have put their stamp on what remains. But there is a constant across the ages and that is the people and the need for them to survive and make their way in the social and economic environment that prevailed at the time. True travellers have a curiosity about the local perspective of common issues, how people satisfy their basic needs and meet the daily challenges. If you dont experience these social atmospherics you miss the learning opportunity that travel provides. This journey visits all of the popular sites and marvels at their wonder, but the book seeks to avoid becoming a travelogue of sites, that is better left to the notable guidebooks available today. A more abiding interest is how the people see themselves and how they view those with whom they need to co-exist both nationally and internationally, especially those from different religious and social structures. What is the nature of the ruling structure - democracy, dictatorship or theocracy? How does the ruling structure maintain order? How open is society? These are the questions the true traveller seeks to have answered during the course of their journey.

This is a journey through one of two remaining Stalinist nations in the world: Turkmenistan. The other is North Korea. Both countries compete for the lowest international ranking in terms of human rights for their people. Turkmenistan is a tribal nation that fell into the grip of the Soviet Union in the 1920's and following collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991, joined other Soviet satellites in securing independence. It was a time when committed senior communists quickly converted to capitalism and competed in a made scramble for power. Today, it is a country moulded by the idiosyncratic views of its first President-for-Life who established a Personality Cult to consolidate his power and an iron fist to maintain that power. He was a President who issued a range of bizarre edicts including naming months of the year after his family, closing all the hospitals outside of the capital, banning gold teeth and expecting children to spend more time in the fields rather than at school. His successor seems no less enamoured with the governance model established by his predecessor and the attendance at rallies devoted to eulogising the President are virtually compulsory. The capital, Ashgabat, appears in the Guinness Book of Records as the most 'marbled city in the world' and the country is populated with numerous golden statues and tributes to the President, past and present. One presidential statue of gold rotated so that it continuously faced the sun. The marble and the monuments are funded by large reserves of oil and gas. The Karakum Desert occupies 80 per cent of the country and population centres are clustered around the limited sources of water which are under constant threat. We visit ancient sites and visit the several oases fed by rivers originating in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Our journey takes us along the Amu Darya, the principal river in Central Asia and the source of the Karakum Canal, the longest, navigable canal in the world, providing precious water to numerous locations throughout the country. Crossing the border to Iran, we enter one of the worlds few religious theocratic regimes where the Supreme Leader speaks directly to God and to question his message is a form of blasphemy, which can attract the penalty of death. But it is also a country where the people are amongst the most hospitable to travellers and they do not necessarily accept the wisdom of the clerics as a guide to their future or as a measure of their past. We visit a number of religious sites and learn more about Zoroastrianism, the religion that preceded Christianity by 500 years and Islam by over a thousand years. We learn about the martyrs, those who died during the Iran-Iraq War to defend the clerics and sustain their power who, in turn, were able to organise ready access to Paradise for their supreme sacrifice. We visit a number of locations in the east of the country including the Kalutes and the hottest place on earth with temperatures of over 70 degrees centigrade. We experience the qanats, the unique and ancient model for moving water underground for vast distances allowing desert villages to flourish and caravanseries to operate in support of ancient travellers. We move to the north and the Caspian Coast and visit the Castles of the Assassins and experience the differences between the southern deserts and the fertile lands and unique settlements along the coast. This is a journey of contrasts. Contrasts in geography and the interaction between the people and those who govern them. Contrasts between what those who govern believe and what those who are governed believe.

Desires are suppressed and aspirations thwarted for both the staff and patients of a psychiatric ward. Orderly Oliver pines for Margaret Thatcher. Dr Rupert wants Nurse Whitehall who wants Dr Rupert. But Dr Rupert and his wife are trying for a baby and Nurse Whitehall who is also married has just returned from maternity leave. As for the patients, Duncan secretly loves Anna who secretly loves Martin who openly loves no one. Both a love story and a modern allegory of the state, Picture Ourselves in Latvia confronts the impossibility of categorising people as either sane or insane.

Two of Us flashes between Honolulu and New York City, shining a spotlight on the lives of He and She and the social and domestic pressures leading to the destructive act of He assassinating John Lennon in December 1980. A showdown between the real and the fantastic through a haunting cast of characters, Two of Us is a mind-bending parable of contemporary relevance speaking to gender expectations, celebrity culture, and gun violence.

Our Walk Through The World is a collection of six short plays examining the absurdities, tragedies and small triumphs of modern life.

In the wake of public spending cuts, Arthur wrestles with the methods set out in Montgomery Swank's 28 Ways to Terminate Your Existence and Questions You May Have, the one book he has salvaged from the closure of his beloved library.