Richard Newton
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irnewton.bsky.social
Richard Newton
@irnewton.bsky.social
Writer, reader, traveller. Author of 'Taylor & Burton in Africa'.
@kirkdalebooks.bsky.social Greatest cameo of all time.
September 10, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Black mamba in our bedroom in South Africa, 2018. #WorldSnakeDay
July 16, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Richard Newton
A lively exploration of life, love, marriage, cinema, celebrity, wildlife, class, race, and post-colonial Africa through the prism of the most famous couple in the world.
May 3, 2025 at 10:25 AM
A lively exploration of life, love, marriage, cinema, celebrity, wildlife, class, race, and post-colonial Africa through the prism of the most famous couple in the world.
May 3, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Reposted by Richard Newton
Graham Greene joined Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton on location in Dahomey for the shooting of The Comedians, adapted from his novel, in 1967. He's central to a chapter in Taylor & Burton in Africa by Richard Newton.
April 20, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Richard Newton
New cover for the paperback of Taylor & Burton in Africa by @irnewton.bsky.social
April 25, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Richard Newton
In 1967, Marlon Brando visited Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton on set in Dahomey. Burton wasn't happy. "Sure as dammit he bedded Elizabeth during 'Reflections in a Golden Eye'." It's the basis for a memorable chapter in the novel 'Taylor and Burton in Africa' by Richard Newton.
April 19, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton: the most famous relationship in the world. Join them on three visits to Africa.
"I've named every one of my grey hairs. They're all called Burton."
"The doctors say there's alcohol crystallizing on my spine. It's not alcohol, it's your venom."
April 16, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Memories of Lesotho, the country 'nobody has heard of'.
March 6, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Royal Shrovetide morning in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. From 2pm today and tomorrow, the entire town will be in the grip of mass football, the Up'Ards v the Down'Ards, with the goals three miles apart.
March 4, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Portmeirion. 3 February 2025
February 3, 2025 at 7:37 PM
January 31, 2025 at 2:16 PM
@kirkdalebooks.bsky.social Half a century later, it's the morning after the night before.
January 25, 2025 at 11:12 AM
If PG Wodehouse wrote hard-boiled crime fiction. "A ghastly smile turned Tiny's face into a cross between a bad bayonet wound and a six-month-old Halloween pumpkin."
January 8, 2025 at 10:06 AM
RIP Jimmy Carter. My father was among the organisers of his visit to North East England in 1977, and was later given a signed photo and a peanut lapel pin. (Months earlier, the President's mother-in-law, Allie Smith (1905-2000), met the Queen at Durham Cathedral, then came to our house for tea.)
December 29, 2024 at 10:28 PM
Christmas books.
December 25, 2024 at 2:26 PM
This'll keep me going for the rest of the year.
December 17, 2024 at 2:22 PM
Memories of Hama, Syria. 1996
December 5, 2024 at 2:30 PM
Cheetahs. Kruger National Park. 2023
December 4, 2024 at 9:38 AM
Memories of Aleppo, Syria. 1996
November 30, 2024 at 5:15 PM
Lions. The Vurhami Pride in Kruger National Park are perhaps the only tree-climbing lions in southern Africa. (In East Africa, tree-climbing prides are found in Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park and Tanzania's Lake Manyara National Park.) Photos taken in March 2023.
November 30, 2024 at 9:18 AM
Leopards. It took me 25 years to see one in the wild, then the floodgates opened. On my last 3-month safari I was averaging a sighting every three days, and got to know several individuals. This is Tsira, frequently seen in the Phalaborwa area of Kruger National Park. (Here chasing a rock hyrax.)
November 26, 2024 at 9:50 AM
More photos taken by my late uncle, Ernest Newton. In 1945 he served with the RAF's 111 Maintenance Unit in Egypt, based in the Tura-el-Asmant caves, the ancient quarries from which the building blocks for the pyramids were excavated.
November 25, 2024 at 9:35 AM