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'A very good article. Actual investigative journalism.'
– comment on Nick Ryan's latest investigation, into gold selling blackmarket in video games |
Such work won me a Special Commendation
award from the International Federation of Journalists in 1999. In 2005 I was longlisted for the Paul Foot Award for Campaigning Journalism, sponsored by Private Eye magazine and The Guardian.
I'm also, at times, an author, book reviewer, commentator, consultant TV producer, business writer and communications consultant for various non-profit groups, as well as guest lecturer on issues connected to extremism. I was previously one of the editors at the Royal Geographical Society magazine, Geographical.
For my business and contract work on behalf of clients, please click here.
Reportage:
Alien nations
In just over five years' time the London Olympics will officially celebrate the multicultural face of Britain. But in the shadows of the proposed new stadium, two popular movements with radically different views on immigration are rapidly taking hold. Nick Ryan meets the people and the politicians of the BNP and the Respect party, and wonders how long it will be before the area is torn in two.
From Bagels to Mosques, This is The Real Brick Lane
With the branding of the novel Brick Lane as "despicable" by Bangladeshis nationwide, author Nick Ryan ventures into the heart of the East End to uncover the true face of 'Banglatown' and its people. Or read online at The Independent.
Bad Boyz
A shaven-headed burglar and self-confessed ram raider. An anaemic 14-year-old born to smackheads, praying to a willow called the 'Death Tree'. The gypsy child,
destroying a bedroom in front of my eyes, playing out the memory of the
beatings and bestiality visited upon him by his father.
British Prisoners of Auschwitz
It was the most infamous of the Nazi death camps, but it also held British PoWs whose incredible acts of bravery and sabotage hampered the German war effort and helped Jewish inmates.
Children of the Abyss
++Longlisted for the Paul Foot Award++
The old East End of London is disappearing, its gangsters and villains consigned to memory. But has the world that spawned the Kray twins changed so much? Nick Ryan ventures into the bandlands of Banglatown.
Convoy
of Hope
Frosty air and dark ice surround a shell-pocked school. The children
sometimes dig bullets from the flaking plaster of the walls. Glazed Christmas
trees dot the hillsides nearby – Nick Ryan voyages into the
heart of the former Yugoslavia.
Dangerous
Days
The young woman pulls slowly on a cheap cigarette, obscuring her narrow,
determined features in a dense cloud of smoke. Her slim, nail-bitten fingers
tap absentmindedly on the tape recorder, ignoring the roar of the troop
helicopters passing overhead. Kurdistan offers a hard choice between life
and death.
The Disappeared
Abdurressak Ipek has lived a long life. A tall, weather-beaten shepherd with a hook nose and tobacco-stained beard, he doesn't even know his exact age – somewhere around 70 or 75 – and unlike most modern Kurds, he doesn't speak Turkish or the main Kurdish dialect. Yet he remembers the day that the army entered his village, Tirali in the Lice region, on 18 May 1994.
Extreme Measures
Many thought the Ku Klux Klan consigned to memory. But is it on the rise once more?
For King and Country
With each passing year fewer are left to remember. Those that remain clutch service papers and black and white photos that show the brave young men they once were.
Forecasting: They have seen the future - and it works for them
Big business harnesses an art honed on the game boards of the Cold War: Futurology.
A Forgotten War
The Saharawis of North Africa are caught in a desert war with Morocco. While their guerillas face Moroccan troops across a spectacularly fortified great wall, Saharawi women are running hospitals, schools and desert market gardens. Nick Ryan reports from a settlement in the Liberated Zone in the Western Sahara.
'Gold Trading' Exposed: Special Investigation
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
It's a multi-billion dollar trade, yet denied in public by most players. In a four-part weekly feature series, Nick Ryan reports on the current state of the thriving grey market in MMO currencies, characters and items.
The gospel of the web
Nick Ryan on the holy wars fought in cyberspace between religious movements and their critics.
The Green Hills of San Francisco
San Francisco is leading the way for a new generation of green cities, writes Nick Ryan.
Identity Crisis
The death of a prominent Christian Identity campaigner brings home memories of his bizarre encounters with Identity's twisted fundamentalists, recalls Nick Ryan.
In the Frontline
As aid agencies work frantically to repatriate 460,000 refugees from Albania alone, Nick Ryan reflects on the June day he spent on the Kosovan border as the refugees flooded out of their homeland. He discovered a scene that was as emotional as it was lawless.
John Walker's Blues
With his draconian prison restrictions finally being lifted, and the arrival of a new President who has pointedly called for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, has the time come to release "the American Taliban?" Nick Ryan joins the family of John Walker Lindh in San Francisco.
Masters of Kung Fu
The old, tanned face is inscrutable, as the tall, stooped figure steps from between the ranks of waiting students. He sucks in the cold mountain air and calmly adjusts the silk shirt, stitched for him by his wife and which clashes incongruously with his old pair of trainers. Oblivious to both this and the crowd, he calmly stubs out a cigarette and launches himself into the Calling Crane.
Memoirs of a Streetfighting Man
++IFJ Special Commendation Award++
The gear is casual, but the faces are hard, sullen, full of mistrust. Angry-looking tattoos poke out from under smart shirt sleeves. Mobile phones lie in a neat row, next to bottles of Bud and pints of Guinness. The talk, in a melting pot of accents from across London’s council estates, is of football ‘firms’, lads and ‘jobs’ [robberies]. Nick Ryan delves deep into the world of Combat 18, in this award-winning reportage.
New World War
The raids began the night he went to prison. Over 100 men moved in a synchronized operation as he slept. First came Switzerland; then the Channel Islands; after that Barbados; the Caribbean; and finally Canada. Nick Ryan joins the global fraud busters taking down major-league con men.
Paradise Awakes
While package tourists head to better-known Jamaica or Antigua, and luxury yachters sail down to the British Virgin Islands, the seasoned Caribbean traveller chooses a very different – and far more "real" – island getaway, just emerging from its troubled past.
Queens of the Cosmic Timewarp
There is a room, reached at the top of a winding set of stairs, at the back of the King's Arms in Soho...The unlikely story of the gay Dr Who fans.
Television Nation
Police raids and punishment beatings can't stop MED-TV providing Kurdistan with a satellite channel to call its own.
Truth Under Siege
For journalists in war-torn Algeria, assassination isn't just another story – it's a job hazard. A rare look inside an independent press struggling under a death sentence.
Uncle Sam's Few
Whilst the story of the Battle of Britain “few” is well-known, less publicised is the tale of the American volunteers who braved hardship and death to fight with the RAF, as Nick Ryan explains.
Wave of Terror
They use speed boats, automatic weapons and satellite technology to create a wave of terror on the high seas. The pirates of the Nineties are far deadlier than the heroes of the past. Discover the modern day pirates who rule the high seas.
The Wild West
What lies behind London's theatreland? Behind the tacky neon strip joints and uber-cool bars of Soho? Or the swanky hotels and penthouses lining Park Lane and Mayfair? Is Fitzrovia the new NoHo and who was the King of Quacks who once worked in Marylebone's Harley Street?
The Wrong Side of the Tracks
A biting wind scours the raked fields of Flanders. The landscape, once scene of bitter trench warfare, is wide and flat. On the horizon the spires and domes of an ancient metropolis pull near – and a very different battle raging in the heart of the European Union.
Zealots
The siege of Waco; nerve gas attacks on the Tokyo subway; mass suicide as a comet passes in the night sky – think of the word “cult” and these images could well spring to mind.
Interviews:
Baghdad Business School
He was on the first civilian plane into Iraq, with just a few pieces of equipment and an envelope full of cash. Yet just a year later the author of Baghdad Business School had braved the guns and bombs to create a thriving international business, as he tells Nick Ryan.
The
Devil Drives
For years he remained a mysterious figure, alluded to in the novel The English Patient simply as "older brother". Yet with a new literary prize, knighthood, and the unveiling of a major philanthropic foundation, millionaire writer and explorer Sir Christopher Ondaatje is now stepping firmly into the limelight.
Blowing the SAS's Cover Up
They were the lucky ones. The five survivors of an SAS patrol-gone-wrong became living legends, their tale of daring do and heroism etched forever in military and public myth. But as one soldier fights to get his story published, were we told the whole truth? Mike Coburn tells Nick Ryan why the British government wants to keep him quiet.
Deadly Nile Bug
Many died trying, but the first complete descent of this great river was not until 2004, undertaken by the amazing modern-day adventurer, Pasquale Scaturro.
Fierce Commedy with Mark Thomas
We met on the streets of Whitehall, central London, during the now infamous riots against capitalism earlier this year. Short and stocky, he sat on a bicycle, chatting nonchalantly to two anarchists as the police lines bore down upon us. With characteristic composure, he featured a quick glance behind him, then cycled off at a leisurely pace.
Global Village Rebel
Author Hari Kunzru stunned the literary world with his debut novel, The Impressionist. Not to mention his £1.25m deal. Can he sustain the hype the second time around?
Gorgeous or Grotesque?
Controversial politician George Galloway has garnered respect and loathing in equal measure for his outspoken stance on the war in Iraq and scathing criticism of Tony Blair. He tells Nick Ryan about his far-from private life.
Heroine of Empire
From a tiny office, packed at the top of a cramped building off London's Portobello Road, the story of one of our greatest female explorers is being prepared.
The Irish Matchmaker
For 27 years Daly has been matching couples. Twenty seven years on a 63 acre farm, living with his wife, seven children and 30 head of cattle, surrounded on all sides by the bachelor farmers of County Clare.
King Arthur
A terraced house on a large estate, south east England, February: Green, spreading ink encircles the powerful forearm. Coarse black hairs poke through the tightly patterned lace of tattoos, a sleeve of foreign lands, former girlfriends, Mum, Dad and Hells Angels.
King of Culture
Iain Banks is one of the most prolific and successful British authors, writing both mainstream and science-fiction bestsellers. Nick Ryan meets him.
Racial Pride and Prejudice
Nick Griffin is the frighteningly plausible new front for the British National Party. Just don't call him a Nazi.
The Running Man
Justin Hall and Jason Hosh - the Running Man duo - are on a mission, to use the latest technology to benefit threatened peoples the world over, writes Nick Ryan.
A White Man's Obsession
As a child, he had read the stories of a lost expedition and the "jungle hell" which had swallowed up the white man. Even decades after it had happened, the newspapers were full of sightings and testimonies, of how the explorer had followed his 'crazy' dream of a hidden Atlantis into the heart of the Amazon – and simply disappeared.
To Whom It May Concern
The 25th anniversary of the Vietnam war passed earlier this year, yet few in Britain know that young British men also fought in the conflict. They still suffer with their memories today.
Reviews (read more at The Express, Shortlist and The South China Morning Post):
East End Chronicles by Ed Glinert
Read about the mysteries and mayhem of the real East Enders.
Unveiled
A review of two new books on modern Islam, including Irshad Manji's controversial The Trouble With Islam.
Farce With A Heart
Nick's camera review of the new Pathé film, Easy Virtue, for the Telegraph's website.
Revolutionary Road
Forget explosions or Tinseltown: this winter turn to Revolutionary Road, a sublime story that has lain in the dust for the past half century and is now resurrected as a major movie.
Opinions:
Bali Carnage
I know the tiny Indonesian island of Bali well. Or at least, I once did. It provided me with a haven, somewhere to recharge body and spirit, after I left the Middle East.
Fear
and Loathing
Returning to a subject he last visited for The Guardian five years
ago, author Nick Ryan reveals that extremism is continuing to thrive online.
Heart
of Darkness?
It is not just militant Islamists that seek to profit from the current
Middle East crisis. Far-right Holocaust “revisionists” are attempting
to capitalise on it too.
National
Affront
As the BBC unveils the first major drama to tackle the far right in over
20 years, the show's creative producer recalls some of his encounters
among extremists.
Peace Fire
I came to this project in a strange kind of way: in 1990 I was a backpacker. That odd breed of traveller, often young, that likes to consider itself different or aloof to regular tourists.
The
Rise of Europe's Right
We urgently need to address the rise of the extreme Right across western
Europe, argues writer Nick Ryan, whose recent book Homeland is
an investigation of white nationalism.
Web Specials:
Exposing the Scale of Sexual Abuse
There are more people involved in a sexual abuse case than simply the
victim ('survivor') and the paedophile. In this moving series of articles,
the voices of every person involved in a sexual abuse case are heard – from the survivor, to the investigating officers and legal experts.
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