{"id":469200,"date":"2025-10-02T19:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/469200\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T19:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:32:16","slug":"meet-linden-macintyre-the-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/469200\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Linden MacIntyre – The Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

For decades, Canadian audiences knew Linden MacIntyre as the face of The Fifth Estate<\/a>, CBC\u2019s investigative program. At 71, he stepped away from television to make room for a new generation of journalists \u2014 and to devote himself fully to writing.<\/p>\n

His latest book, Accidental Villain, revisits one of the bloodiest chapters of Ireland\u2019s history through the story of Henry Hugh Tudor, a British police commander. <\/p>\n

Ahead of his Wordfest appearance here in Calgary, MacIntyre spoke with The Scene about storytelling, moral choices, and the lessons history leaves behind.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

WHY THIS STORY?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cNobody seemed to know much about [Hugh Tudor], and he was engaged in an extremely important part of 20th-century Irish history.
\u201cAs a leader of a conventional police force, he borrowed the tactics of his enemy and turned them against them. So suddenly, policemen are behaving like terrorists \u2014 murdering, torturing, and frightening people. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis interested me because it\u2019s now a common part of conflict \u2014 governments using terrorism as a weapon against terrorists. People in public positions \u2014 soldiers, police, bureaucrats \u2014 can end up being labelled villains, even when motivated by loyalty and duty. Duty and loyalty to the wrong cause will get you nowhere in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

RECURRING \u2018ACCIDENTS\u2019\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople become villains not because they want to be villains, but because they do things they believe are legitimate. Tudor saw the Irish uprising not as a freedom fight, but as a crime wave, as his superiors told him. He accidentally slid into behaviour that turned him into a villain. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened in Ireland was subsequently copied elsewhere \u2014 Palestine, the Balkans, Latin America. The ugliness has continued through history.<\/p>\n

\u201cPowerful people will always seek to increase power and wealth at the expense of others. Historically, tragedies repeat \u2014 the 20th century had tragedies, now the 21st century has \u2018fires\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne comfort of being old is that you won\u2019t have to worry about it as much personally. I worry for future generations, but there\u2019s nothing I can do to reverse what\u2019s happening.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

LITERATURE IS HOPE<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no Canadian literary scene when I was young. It blossomed in the \u201960s and \u201970s, when public support encouraged talent. The diversity of arts and cultures is pretty new to my experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been going to literary festivals a lot over the last 20\u201325 years, and it\u2019s inspiring to see the extent to which they have a global reach \u2014 the number of talented people who come to these events not just to \u201cshow the flag\u201d but because they genuinely appreciate Canadian stories.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPeople who tell stories, and people who are interested in listening to them, are an actual bright spot in the world.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cPeople who tell stories, and people who are interested in listening to them, are an actual bright spot in the world. They dedicate themselves to supporting the arts, and that gives us hope for the survival of the species, which is our ability to think about deep ideas, about each other, to solve problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLiterature is hope. Music is hope. We tend to be blinded by the horrors of the headlines, and we can easily forget that the vast majority of human beings are not twisted or sick, they\u2019re just people who want to get up through the day with a certain amount of satisfaction and security.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

LEAVING CBC<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d been at CBC a long time and was watching a whole generation of young people having a hard time getting a foothold. I figured if a couple of old people like me bail out, they\u2019ll make room for new blood and new thinking. <\/p>\n

\u201cI felt comfortable with the decision because I could turn to book writing full-time. I\u2019d already written five or six books, and they were successful enough that I could make a living doing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the clock ticks, you realize your time is running out. Changing careers requires confronting that. It\u2019s not always thrilling; there\u2019s a bit of fear, uncertainty, and awareness that life is not as long as you once thought.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

BETWEEN MEDIOCRE AND BRILLIANT\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cMotivation has to come from inside yourself. My objective is to produce a book people consider good, not necessarily brilliant. Success and fame come from circumstances outside your control. My work is somewhere on the continuum between mediocre and brilliant, and there\u2019s a place for everybody.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy work is somewhere on the continuum between mediocre and brilliant, and there\u2019s a place for everybody.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAs long as you have mobility, clarity, and curiosity about life and the world, there\u2019s no reason not to find some way to make yourself useful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPLEASE, BAN MY BOOK!\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThe funny thing is, banning a book can actually make it more popular. Every writer deep down thinks, \u2018Please, ban my book!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the stupid mistakes is trying to stop people from accessing what they legitimately want: exposure to good ideas, to earn a living without hassle, to live peacefully. Messing with that creates situations that no one in power can easily survive. <\/p>\n

\u201cExplore history \u2014 of the world, of culture \u2014 to see where things went right and wrong. And write about it truthfully, whether as academics or artists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a lot of faith in fantasy \u2014 it\u2019s in our past experiences you\u2019ll find the greatest evidence of whatever it\u2019s going to take to get us through into the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability of people to tell stories should not be taken for granted, as we may very well be moving into an era in which propaganda becomes the principal story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linden MacIntyre appears at Wordfest in three events:<\/p>\n