Shoumojit Banerjee

Today is the 155th birth anniversary of medieval and early modern India's greatest chronicler, Sir Jadunath Sarkar. My piece on his opus 'Fall of the Mughal Empire' which unsettles precisely because it resists easy political appropriation.@vikramsampath 🔗theperfectvoice.in/post/autopsy-o…

@LWestwoodAuthor @asiancha @myetcetera Wonderful!

my review of Cultural Mavericks by Zheng Liu (2026) in @asiancha with many thanks to Tammy @myetcetera for her judicious editing!!

@LWestwoodAuthor @perfectvoice_in Terrific piece! Very timely.

My latest piece in @perfectvoice_in edited by the venerable Mister Banerjee @ShoumojitB - China, Pig Butchery & the Mekong theperfectvoice.in/post/scam-repu…

If the Maduro coup is anything to go by, it reinforces the fact that however battered a petrostate #Venezuela may be, it remains too vast a prize for any superpower to ignore. My piece charting the rise and fall of the petro-state from Gómez to Chavez. theperfectvoice.in/post/caracas-1…

Sadat's decision to go to war with Israel in October '73 and fatefully, #SaudiArabia's King Faisal's assent to 'weaponize' oil would shake the industrial West and Japan to its core, unleashing an energy shock that mirrors today's #IranWar‌. My piece. 🔗theperfectvoice.in/post/riyadh-19…

@MarkWoodburn68 @AllertonComms Philby wants to return...

@AllertonComms @ShoumojitB The Lantern Network is his best book. But it’s a sad one.

Len Deighton was the last paladin of an illustrious line of British espionage writers stretching back to Conrad and including Ambler, Fleming, Greene and le Carré. His Unnamed Spy novels, the complex Bernard Samson cycle & war non-fiction were an integral part of my adolescence.

@kmstaunton1 Yessir! For someone wishing to understand the psychology of war-scarred Europe, Deighton's works provided a unique window. He was just about the most enjoyable literary tour operator, who introduced you to Cold War Berlin like no one else.

@ShoumojitB LD was a literary legend.

@elie_foube16925 Daniel Yergin should be your man of the hour.

@ShoumojitB The Seven Sisters history in the Gulf for 100 years, setting up desert kingdoms and deposing elected govt's. Have to read more of Steve Coll's books.

The road to OPEC was paved with oil rebels like Enrico Mattei, the 1956 Suez crisis and byzantine producer diplomacy - all of which combined to break the stranglehold of the 'Seven Sisters.' Part 3 of my series on energy and geopolitics. #IranWar‌. 🔗theperfectvoice.in/post/baghdad-1…

@PaulWelters Very atmospheric indeed!

@ShoumojitB I read his "City of Gold" recently. Excellent.

@edwarddglewis1 Regrettably, none of the film versions came remotely up to the level of her books. There was the soporific Salzburg Connection (with Barry Newman) and the ho-hum 'The Venetian Affair' with Robert Vaughn.

@ShoumojitB True. Oops. Thanks. That avalanche scene in the film was rubbish! However, the MacInnes thriller set in war-time Brittany was made into a film in the early 1940s.

@TakoUezono Wonderful! I bought them again in the new Penguin Modern Classics reissue.

@ShoumojitB Some of my favorites

@Neeharp Conrad with 'Under Western Eyes', 'The Secret Agent' and elements in 'Nostromo.' Maugham with 'Ashenden'. Greene - a considerable number.

@ShoumojitB Greene’s repertoire was much wider; I don’t think he can be categorised as an “espionage writer”. But yes, some of his work did have the backdrop of murky world of spying.

@Neeharp Asinine to classify Conrad and Greene as 'espionage' writers, and am absolutely not doing that. But when it comes to plumbling moral depths of espionage fiction, any tradition must feature both prominently - as it is from this wellspring that le Carre and Deighton have drunk.

@dpmont0407 Indeed. Great opening set piece.

@ShoumojitB Yes but I like the plot twist that the guy sent to find the spy has a heart attack and the prisoner he is escorting assumes his identity.

@dpmont0407 Yes, absolutely. Given that it shares more or less the same key plot as Ken Follet’s ‘The Key to Rebecca’ which was made into a TV film with David Soul and Cliff Robertson. ‘Winter’ was another one I'd hoped would be turned into a miniseries.

@ShoumojitB City of Gold should have been made into a movie

@mpmarky Buchan certainly. Lack of tweet space prohibited from mentioning the full line. Another lesser light would be Francis Clifford, especially ‘The Naked Runner’.

@ShoumojitB Could add John Buchan.

@mikecosgrove45 Indeed. On publication, ‘Harry's Game’ had received high praise from none other than Eric Ambler.

@ShoumojitB Gerald Seymour is still alive and s remarkably good read

@MarkWoodburn68 Indeed. Ted Allbeury deserves more than an honourable mention:)

@ShoumojitB Honourable mention to Ted Allbeury. His books were in the same class as Deighton and Le Carre.

@edwarddglewis1 Avalanche Express was Colin Forbes, not MacInnes. Big flop despite Shaw, Marvin and Maximilian Schell in cast. MacInnes got a raw deal when it came to her books being filmed.

@ShoumojitB Oi! You forget the brilliant Helen MacInnes!! At least 2x Hollywood films produced from her spy thrillers - the last of which starring Robert Shaw and Lee Marvin.

@elie_foube16925 His plots were marvelously complex. I jumped into the Samson cycle by picking up 'Hope', only to pause and begin the cycle from scratch. His craftsmanship shone even in his 'lesser' works like MAMista or City of Gold.

@ShoumojitB I came to Leighton pretty late in my reading , except for Horse Under Water in 1985, which led me to swim at the age of 30....me and a friend who were delayed adolescents....went from a fear of water to a good swimmer. It's all in the mind!