Salut!

The drift to jihad that plays up Pompey's role in Middle Eastern conflict

As the pages of Salut! testify, much of my working life is devoted to news and comment on the agonising problem of young westerners attracted to the refinement of imperialism that is Islamic State-inspired jihad. Today*, I focused on a single city, one I visited repeatedly in the buildup to, and aftermath of, the Falklands war ...

Gavrilo Princip, the assassin who changed the world

On this day 100 years ago, Gavrilo Princip narrowly escaped the death penalty and was sentenced instead to 20 years' imprisonment for shooting dead Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, four months earlier in the city of Sarajevo.

The prosecution had argued in vain that his birth certificate was mistaken, making him 20 and therefore eligible to hang.

The impact of Princip's crime was greater than he could have envisaged in his wilder dreams. It propelled international powers, by domino effect starting with the empire's declaration of war on Serbia, into the First World War and profoundly influenced events throughout the remainder of the young century.

Islamic State: what attracts outwardly decent young people, and what keeps them

Unmoved by the emotion that swept the French city of Nice after the murder of a much-respected resident, Hérvé Gourdel, beheaded by ISIL allies in Algeria, other inhabitants were putting the finishing touches to plans to join the extremist group. In all, a group of 11 from one extended family is believed to have left France with the intention settling in Syria after crossing from Turkey.

To most of us, the thought process of the adults - there were also four children - may defy belief. But there seems no shortage of people, especially the young, prepared to abandon civilised society and throw in their lot with a group proud of its savagery ... my latest report for The National, Abu Dhabi follows:

Would trying Islamic State's UK contingent for treason help or backfire?

From the Law Society of Upper Canada Archives

I have been looking again for The National, Abu Dhabi* at the troubling issue of western jihadists and wondering aloud whether it would be utterly counter-productive, or quite a good idea, to invoke the Treason Act in the cases of UK citizens. I come down in favour of a carrot and stick approach ...

Minding our language: why Islamic State's serial murderers hate daesh

ISIL favours time travel, but may find this photo of a tomb in Aleppo, Syria a little too recent (1919-20); from the Mennonite Church USA Archives

When I devoted a recent edition of my column on words for The National, Abu Dhabi* to the language of extremism, I left a little unfinished business and the paper’s comment editor ask me to cover it next time. It is an offshoot of the unease many feel about dignifying a private army of marauding, butchering and ungodly warriors by using their own preferred title, Islamic State. Here, then, is a look at why the French government has urged media to use one particular alternative …

Au revoir France, arrivederci Alassio. The hibernation begins

Stop Press: apologies for recent gremlins ... Salut! is now safely back in London

This is a much shorter version of what I had virtually finished writing just before Typepad crashed yet again, taking everything I'd done with it.

All back up now (or maybe not! Still playing up). In any case, it will return minus my earlier work, lost for ever.

The hibernation in London is about to start. We chose a last weekend of gastronomic delights with Italy-loving French friends in lovely Alassio, about which more later, rather than staying to be ripped off once more on the French side of the border.

At the wonderful La Vigna, high above Alassio, we tucked into this starter (what you see is for two) ...

... and could have stopped there without eating another morsel, just sipping the Barolo.

But we'll miss lots about France, too. A few reflections may appear here in a few days.

On the road tomorrow, stopping in Troyes overnight to see if the home of andouillettes has improved in the past year on how to cook and present them.

So à bientôt.

Who'd have guessed? France wins Anglo-French showdown over Indian food

This little tussle between Saint-Tropez and London lost its way somewhat amid a Salut! posting about something else, Helen Mirren's enjoyable film, The Hundred-Foot Journey. The outcome offered an unexpected development in my continuing search for a truly good Indian meal in France ...

Minding our language: careless words pander to Islamic State obscenity

From the Concise Oxford English Oxford Dictionary

When news broke of Alan Henning's terrible fate in Syria, at the hands of men devoid of courage, humanity or decency, early reaction settled on misleading talk of his "innocence". Of course he was innocent, guilty of no wrongdoing of any kind. But so were the American journalists (Jim Foley and Steven Sotloff), the other British victim of obscene Islamic State murderers (David Haines) and, in Algeria, the French mountain guide Hervé Gourdel. There is no real distinction. And there is also, as I argue in my latest column on words for The National (Abu Dhabi), no excuse for describing cold-blooded murder as execution ...

Cats on Trees, French music that travels - with an 'Irish-Cambodian accent'

Photo: Ana Bloom

What’s that song?

The question has been on lots of lips in France over the past few months as “that song” secures endless replays on radio. Though this may not be a sound recommendation, it even pops up in supermarkets as Jules, my friend in Paris, and I can testify from encounters with the audio systems while – new men that we are - we’ve been doing the shopping.

French Connexion: mud, tears and hellfire from Valérie Trierweiler, a woman scorned

As I ploughed through Merci Pour Ce Moment, the French former first lady Valérie Trierweiler's merciless demolition of François Hollande, I experienced several changes of emotion.

These included moments of sympathy for her; if only half of it is true, Hollande was a rotten partner. Her modest origins have instilled sounder values. He was contemptuous of her life and work, interested only in his power and her responsibilities as consort.

Yet she was a loose cannon, constantly liable to embarrass and damage him. She was insanely jealous long before there was cause to be. For a journalist, she was spectacularly naive about, and lacking in understanding of, the inevitable impact on their lives of his overwhelming new challenges as president. And, again for a journalist, she was irrational about the nature of media interest.

The book gives rare insight into the personality, massive warts and all, of a serving president. Perhaps even a woman scorned ought to have waited until he was no longer president, but he arguably brought that inconvenience on himself.

For my latest column in The Connexion, a monthly newspaper for English speakers in France, I considered what the affair tells us of France's high-minded but two-faced attitude towards rights to privacy. Here, more or less, it is ...