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BOCA BEACON - January 30, 2015

ETC.

Around the island

■ STAFF REPORT

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ungry for a History Byte? Your appetite will soon be assuaged, as the first Byte of the season will be called, “The Locomotive That Went to Sea.” The Boca Grande Historical Society, as always, will be presiding over the event. It is scheduled for 11 to 11:30 a.m. in the loggia of the Johann Fust Community Library. The featured speaker is Joe Freeman, a port agent from 1951 to 1979. Freeman will provide a firsthand account of overall operations of the railroad pertaining to Boca Grande, from the time the phosphate cars left the mining areas off-island until the cargo was in the holds of the ships. The program is free and open to the public. There will also be refreshments served following the presentation. For more information call the Boca Grande Historical Society, 964-1600.

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PROFILE – A scholar, a news correspondent, a novelist

A bottle of Scotch and a carton of Marlboros ...

Martin Walker M

■ BY JACK SHORT

artin Walker has seen monumental changes in journalism and foreign correspondence throughout his long career as a journalist and consultant. Boca Grande residents are no stranger to his work, especially his later efforts as a detective novelist and political consultant. The Boca Grande Sleuths got to know Bruno, Chief of Police, the main character in his series of acclaimed detective novels, and he will be a guest of the Friends on Sat. January 31 when he will give his lecture, “Europe and Putin.” It’s a little tough to chose from the multitude of notable accolades on his resume for inclusion in a profile – try to include them all, and there would be no room left for writing about what a wonderful conversationalist he is. Picking and choosing among them leaves a writer feeling as though he’s made an egregious omission. Martin is a Scottish born journalist who grew up in England in a working class family and won a scholarship to Oxford to study history. After that, he received a Harkness fellowship to study economics at Harvard, where he was also a resident tutor at the Kirkland House. During his time in the states he enjoyed a congressional fellowship and worked for a year in Washington D.C. as a political aide to Senator Edmund Muskie. “I really enjoyed being in the U.S.,” he said. “But of course visas don’t last forever.” Even while at Harvard, however, he had started to write freelance pieces for The Guardian. He had time between his admission to Oxford and his enrollment (about eight months), and he said he wrote to just about every newspaper whose address he could find in the local reference library to asked if they would try him out. He was offered a probationary job by the Johannesburg Star in South Africa. “They said if you turn up here we’ll try you out,” he recalled. “I had been working in a supermarket since I was about 16 packing shelves, and I had just about enough money to buy myself a very cheap charter flight ticket out there.” So began his long career as a journalist. Having gained some confidence in his writing, he wrote a freelance piece for The Guardian on the 75th anniversary of America’s national parks. “I had just spent a summer driving around America going

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HOMETOWN: OCCUPATION: HOBBIES: FAVORITE BOOK: FAVORITE TV SHOW: FAVORITE MOVIE: THE PERSON I ADMIRE MOST: LIKES: DISLIKES:

Martin Walker from national park to national park with a girlfriend, camping, and I just thought they were wonderful,” he said. “So I wrote an article about that for The Guardian and they ran it.” Eventually they would offer him a position as a cub reporter. He wrote local news stories about coal mine closures, council meetings, and more “ambitious pieces” about working man’s clubs run by miners. In 1972, less than ten years after he’d started they sent him back to the U.S. to cover the Nixon-McGovern election. Since then he’s seen how the ease with which information is now accessed has changed journalism. He recalled working in Moscow from 1984 to 1989. In 1988, his office gave him a small Tandy computer. He was one for the first people in Moscow to have one and, having obtained a direct line out of Moscow – Martin joked (or not) that you could get anything for a carton of Marlboros and a bottle of Scotch at that time – he had become a sort of tourist attraction. See PROFILE on PAGE 4

Barra, Scotland Writer Skiing 1984 Game of Thrones Shakespeare in Love Mikhail Gorbachev Eating really good farm eggs Bloody raw meat

Is there someone you would like to see profiled? Chances are you’re not alone. Everyone has a story to tell. Why not share yours, or give us your suggestions? Call the Beacon at 964-2995.

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