James Riordan’s novel, When the Guns Fell Silent (2000), is partly set in the WWI trenches of Flanders and partly in Portsmouth. Telling the tales of Portsmouth ‘Pals Battalion’ volunteers and their families on the home front, the novel focuses on the 1914 Christmas Day truces and using this event as a means to press Riordan’s anti-war sentiments.

In Chapter 10 of the novel, Jack Loveless is seen off by his family on his way to Flanders, having signed up for the 15th Hampshire Regiment along with his mates. Jack dies on Boxing Day 1914, a day after the Christmas Truce, aged 18.

In order to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the start of World War One, an excellent Oxford University Press edition of the novel was created and edited by Dr Christine Berberich and Dr Elodie Rousselot of the English Literature team at the University of Portsmouth, in conjunction with Portsmouth City Council, Pompey in the Community, and Affinion International. The two scholars wrote a fine introduction providing detailed information on Riordan’s interesting life and career as well as addressing a number of the novel’s key contexts, including the trenches, Portsmouth’s ‘pal battalions’, nation, class, and politics during the war, and attitudes to Germany and racism. This edition was the Portsmouth City Read Book 2014 and was launched by Dr Berberich with a public talk at the Central Library on 25 October 2014. The Portsmouth City Read project operated for a number of years in order to provide free copies of a relevant book to the city’s school students each year.

James Riordan (10 Oct 1936–10 Feb 2012) was a novelist, broadcaster, and Russian Studies scholar. Describing himself as ‘a working-class oik from Portsmouth’, he was a lifelong Portsmouth FC fan and claimed (probably erroneously) to have been the only Englishman to play for a Soviet football team, Spartak Moscow. His wide-ranging interests and strong political engagement (he was a lifelong communist) led him into many and diverse projects during a productive lifetime that began and ended in the city. He undertook national service with the RAF between 1955 and 1957, and in 1960 graduated in Russian Studies at the University of Birmingham, going on to teach at the London Institute of Education before studying in Moscow during 1963.He later taught at Bradford University and University of Surrey. His autobiography, Comrade Jim: the Spy who Played for Spartak was published by Harper in 2008, and as well as his scholarly work, he wrote children’s novels, including When the Guns Fall Silent (2000), Match of Death, which details a WWII football match between Soviet POWs and the German Wehrmacht, and The Sniper (2008), based on Riordan’s interviews with legendary Stalingrad sniper, Tania Chernova. A keen football fan, Riordan was President and Fellow of the European Committee for Sports History. He died in Portsmouth in 2012.

James Riordan (10 Oct 1936–10 Feb 2012) was a novelist, broadcaster, and Russian Studies scholar. Describing himself as ‘a working-class oik from Portsmouth’, he was a lifelong Portsmouth FC fan and claimed (probably erroneously) to have been the only Englishman to play for a Soviet football team, Spartak Moscow. His wide-ranging interests and strong political engagement (he was a lifelong communist) led him into many and diverse projects during a productive lifetime that began and ended in the city. He attended Southern Grammar School for Boys which at this point in its complex history (1946–63) was located on the present site of Portsmouth College because its original site (on land known as ‘the Wilderness’ between Victoria Road North and Fawcett Road, had been damaged during WWII. Riordan may also have experienced the school’s war-time relocation to Brockenhurst.

Riordan undertook national service with the RAF between 1955 and 1957, and in 1960 graduated in Russian Studies at the University of Birmingham, going on to teach at the London Institute of Education before studying at the Higher Party School Moscow in 1961, sponsored by the Communist Party of Great Britain which he had joined in 1959. Alexander Dubcek was a fellow pupil, and during his time in Moscow Riordan met Ho Chi Minh, Guy Burgess, and Donald Maclean. During this time, the Pompey fan had the city’s Saturday football results paper, the Pink’un posted to him. He later taught at Bradford University and University of Surrey and was often critical of the Soviet Union. His autobiography, Comrade Jim: the Spy who Played for Spartak was published by Harper in 2008, and as well as his scholarly work (which amounted to 20 academic books), he wrote children’s novels, including When the Guns Fall Silent (2000), Match of Death (2002), which details a WWII football match between Soviet POWs and the German Wehrmacht, and The Sniper (2008), based on Riordan’s interviews with legendary Stalingrad sniper, Tania Chernova. A keen football fan, Riordan was President and Fellow of the European Committee for Sports History. He was married three times and had four children, two of whom currently work in Russia. He died in Portsmouth in 2012.

If you have any comments, corrections, or suggestions in relation to the map please contact Dr Mark Frost, English Literature Department, University of Portsmouth: mark.frost@port.ac.uk