The Real 'Mr. Jones'

Life and Afterlife of Gareth Jones feat. Philip Colley (Part 1)

So much for the ‘2024 Bandera Lobby Review’ that I said was forthcoming — I will try to get caught up soon. But I’m happy to announce that the ‘Bandera Lobby Show’ is back with a fascinating two-part interview of Philip Colley that we recorded toward the end of last year. Readers might recall that Colley—the great-nephew and literary executor of the famous journalist Gareth Jones (1905-35) who exposed the 1930s Soviet famine—was behind two guest posts on this Substack:

• Gareth Jones Society responds to British Banderites (March 2024) — Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain demands explanation about Nazi collaborators and the continued existence of the OUN.

• Nation.Cymru or Nation.Coverup? (November 2024) — A year on from the debate in the Welsh Parliament on whether to deem the Ukrainian famine a genocide Philip Colley reflects on the use, and misuse, of his great uncle’s Soviet famine testimony.

Before we discuss the Orwellian afterlife of Gareth Jones, which saw the “Bandera Lobby” (or in this case, the “Holodomor Lobby”) co-opt his memory to push a nationalist agenda, in part one Phil tells us about the “real Mr. Jones,” as opposed to the “Indiana Jones” portrayed, for example, in the Hollywood film, Mr. Jones (2019). Last year, a clip of Phil confronting Andrea Chalupa, one of the producers of this film, went semi-viral on Twitter/X. Here we discuss the backstory, going back to the turn of the 20th century…