Neal Ascherson

Neal Ascherson is a journalist and writer. He was for many years a foreign correspondent for the (London) Observer. Among his books are The King Incorporated: Leopold the Second and the Congo (1963; Granta, 1999), The Struggles for Poland (Random House, 1988), Black Sea (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1996; reprinted by Vintage, 2007), and The Search for Scotland (Granta, 2003)

Recent articles

The wave of change across east-central Europe was a real revolution - but with one missing feature. Neal Ascherson recalls a time of exhiliration and surprise.

A fearless Irish intellectual who embraced the risks of commitment has died at the age of 91. Neal Ascherson recalls some of the high wires and sharp edges of an epic life.

The war over South Ossetia and its messy, dangerous aftermath is a lesson in collective forgetting. A new political settlement involving independence for Abkhazia and a revivified Georgia is needed to break the cycle, says Neal Ascherson.

(This article was first published on 15 August 2008)

The spark of the great student revolts of 1968 first ignited in Warsaw. The epic events in Poland that followed belong to the neglected political history of a tumultuous year. Neal Ascherson traces - and recalls - the "Polish March".

(This article was first published on 1 February 2008)

Poland's stunning election result deserves a closer look, writes Neal Ascherson.