Matt Beynon Rees's Blog
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Jun.17.2010
The company you keep can put the culture around you in a new light, let you see it as you haven’t before.That’s true when I travel to different countries and discover that readers in Germany have a particular take on my Palestinian crime novels which differs from the way they look to Americans, for...
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Jun.12.2010
Their politics might be spinning wheels, but Palestinians are revving engines on the race track.NABLUS, West Bank — For a change, the Palestinians gathered on the main street of Nablus were happy to be going around in circles.Palestinian politics makes a lot of noise, only to end up spinning its...
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Jun.10.2010
The women of the Middle East are about to save me from the greatest banality known to man. I’m counting on them to care as little about the the World Cup as I do and to keep me entertained until men can once again talk about something other than volatile England player Wayne Rooney’s groin.Though I...
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Jun.09.2010
MASADA, Israel — A parade of bejeweled camels, elaborately costumed warriors and prancing horses crossed the stage. Jerusalem had fallen to a conqueror from the east. The high priest predicted disaster and the wrath of a vengeful deity. Three hours later, with searchlights flitting across the...
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Jun.06.2010
Writer’s block has nothing to do with writing.That might seem obvious. When a writer wants to write, but can’t get anything out, he’s blocked. Not writing. Blocked.But it isn’t the writing that causes the block. Neither is it some psychological problem or an inability to conjure up the Muse of...
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May.27.2010
Malcolm Muggeridge (an old English literateur) once said that George Orwell “was no good as a novelist, because he didn’t have the interest in character.” Well, I didn’t need to tell you who George Orwell was, so you may doubt the judgment of the largely forgotten Muggeridge. But I think he was...
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May.23.2010
NABLUS, West Bank — During the Palestinian intifada, I sat on a dusty hilltop overlooking this most violent of West Bank towns with a dozen of the top Israeli officers in the area. The brigade commanders told their regional chiefs that all the police work and house-to-house fighting of the intifada...
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May.20.2010
I often receive emails from book stores, amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and online literary sites telling me how much I’d like the novels of Matt Beynon Rees. I’m delighted to see these emails, which are based on my other purchases and interests, as only I can truly know just how much the novels of...
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May.13.2010
I was at Oxford University at the same time as Britain's new prime minister. But while I spent all my free time at a famous old pub opposite the historic Bodleian Library with a pint of Guinness in the company of some old Irish porters, I never saw David Cameron there. Which makes me doubt his...
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May.13.2010
“Exotic” crime fiction has taken off in the last decade. People want to read about detectives in far-off places, even if they don’t want to wade through learned histories of those distant lands.Many of the biggest selling novels of the last decade have been “exotic crime.” You’ll find a detective...
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May.13.2010
“Exotic” crime fiction has taken off in the last decade. People want to read about detectives in far-off places, even if they don’t want to wade through learned histories of those distant lands.Many of the biggest selling novels of the last decade have been “exotic crime.” You’ll find a detective...
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May.09.2010
Hamas is steadily rebuilding its power in the West Bank, stockpiling weapons and materiel underground, biding its time for a renewal of the conflict with its Fatah rivals.
Palestinian security officials have been telling me this for some time, and they are frankly filled with fear and foreboding....
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May.06.2010
A friend of mine was lunching with a Scandinavian author a while back. At one point, the writer joked: “But that’s enough of me talking about myself. What do YOU think of me?”
Unlike that charming Scandinavian, I don’t care what you think of me. Don’t be offended – I'm not interested in what I...
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May.05.2010
BETHLEHEM, West Bank — The good news is that the West Bank is normal — kind of — and that people are content — sort of. The bad news, the Palestine Liberation Organization thinks it’s responsible for the good news.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who’s also the Palestine Liberation...
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Apr.29.2010
Every week or so an alert zaps into my email account informing me that I can read my books for nothing in Norwegian. My Norwegian’s not exactly fluent and I can read my books for nothing any time. But that’s not the point.
Scandinavia is a major center of so-called Cyberpunks who have willfully...
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About Matt Beynon
Matt Beynon Rees is an award-winning crime novelist who lives in Jerusalem. Major authors have compared him to Graham Greene and John Le Carre. The French magazine L'Express called him "the Dashiell Hammett of the Middle East." Born in Wales, Rees...
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