The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement
By: Angus Mitchell
Publication Date: March 1998
€50.00
The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement by Angus Mitchell
British Consul Roger Casement was knighted in 1911 for his investigations into the genocide of trival peoples in the Congo Free State and Amazon rainforest. Five years later he was hanged for hils role in Ireland’s Easter Rising.
The publication of The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement explodes the myth of the controversial and sexual explicit “Black Diaries” which played a leading role in his downfall, raising disturbing questions about his staged trial, the assassination of his character and subsequent execution that will resound to the very depths of Anglo-Irish history.
“He could tell you things! Things I’ve tried to forget; thing I never did know.” – Joseph Conrad
“His was a heroic nature. I should like to write upon him subtly, so that his enemies would think I was with them till they finished my book and rose from reading it to call him a hero. He has the appeal of a broken archangel.” – T.E. Lawrence
Also available as an ebook
| ISBN | 9781901866070 |
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| Weight | 1 kg |
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| Dimensions | 155 × 230 mm |
| Publication Date | March 1998 |
| Format | Paperback, 536pp |
Lilliput Press –
“Angus Mitchell is to be congratulated for putting the question of Casement’s Black Diaries back into the historical debate. He correctly identifies the Diaries as deeply homophobic. Casement was portrayed as a schizophrenic paedophile who spent funds raised for charity purposes on child prostitutes. Casement’s sexuality is irrelevant, but the denigration of his character is not.
In addition to challenging the Black Diaries, Mitchell puts Casement’s work into a context of anti-imperialism which is still significant. Eleven years after the murder of Chico Mendes, the plight of the native peoples of the Amazon region remains today the scandal it was when Casement went there in 1910.
Hopefully, Mitchell will be successful in his campaign to have a full investigation of the Black Diaries. These have never been subjected to a proper scientific examination, and many important papers, in particular those of Sir Reginald Hall, remain under lock and key 80 years later.”
Kevin Mannerings