Lord David Owen, possibly our finest living former foreign secretary, was interviewed on Tuesday 13 September by Martin Bruce, former headmaster of Christ Church cathedral school in Oxford, as part of the Rye Arts Festival.
Lord Owen’s book, Riddle, Mystery, and Enigma is the first full account of the historical relationship between Britain and Russia over the last two centuries. It is written with insight and sound judgement is to be found on every page. What makes it especially significant at present is of course the Russian invasion of Ukraine and all the consequences of that action world-wide. The more we in the west can try to understand the Russian president, what motivates him and what he is likely to do, the better; so this is a history book full of absolutely current relevance.
Martin’s first question, about George Canning, elicited the response from Lord Owen, “That’s perceptive.” Martin had three more key players for Owen to talk about, Winston Churchill, Yuri Andropov and Boris Yeltsin. All played vital roles in the history of the relationship between Russia and Britain.
Lord Owen spoke with conviction and it was fascinating to learn about the people he had become close to in his time as Foreign Secretary. The audience clearly enjoyed his insights into some of the big political figures of our times, often delivered with humour.
All Martin’s questions to Lord Owen hit the mark, enabling him to explore different avenues of discussion. At one point he said to the audience, “He certainly has read the book!” Indeed he had and enjoyed it greatly. The historical relationship between Britain and the giant Russia is woefully-under explored and Owen’s book fills that gap by exploring the military, geopolitical, and diplomatic aspects of that relationship.
In summary, at the end of a wonderful session that could easily have gone on longer, so captivating was the speaker and so interested the audience, Martin observed that what particularly distinguishes Riddle, Mystery and Enigma is that the author brings to bear in it not just his ability as a writer of history, but his accumulated experience of politics and politicians; he had met and knew many of the significant individuals, including, for example, Vladimir Putin himself.
