Pluto signs memoir of Brighton bomber Patrick Magee

Pluto Press has signed a memoir by Brighton bomber Patrick Magee, the man who planted a Provisional IRA device in an attempt to target Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet, killing five people.

Billed as "an unflinching reckoning with the past, Where Grieving Begins sees Magee recount the influences and events of his life, reflecting on his motivations and the political context in which he acted, armed struggle and the peace process."

He also chronicles the experience, in November 2000, of meeting Jo Berry – whose father was one of five people killed in the Brighton bombing – and the work they have done together nationally and internationally in the 20 years since.

The publisher said: "A chasm of misunderstanding endures around the Troubles and the history of British rule in Ireland. This memoir is an attempt to build a bridge to a common understanding. It is written in the belief that much is possible, even in the face of profound differences, when there is a genuine commitment to honesty, inclusion and dialogue."

World all language rights were acquired direct from the author by editorial director David Castle and m.d. Veruschka Selbach for publication on 1st September 2020.

Castle explained: "Living in Britain during the 1980s and 1990s, you could be completely unaware of how one-sided the representation of the Troubles were. This book vividly and powerfully presents another perspective – of an unjust political settlement and the persecution of a community over decades, leading a young man into determined underground resistance. It also tells a very personal journey, from a difficult childhood through a political awakening and joining the IRA, through the challenges of prison life, to a commitment to the peace process and reconciliation. To resolve any conflict it is essential that the both sides understand each other and in this spirit Pluto Press is proud to publish Patrick Magee’s memoir."

Magee added: "Our visions of the future should remember and honour all that is irretrievably lost in conflict. Contact and dialogue provide the means of loosening the mutually crippling hold of otherness."