ISBN: 9781906791179    Publisher: Arena Books Year of publishing: 2009     Format:  Paperback No of Pages: 276        

This is a penetrating study of many aspects of life, thought, and everyday existence in Scandinavia, as experienced through the author's 9-year residence in the enlightened far north in the 1960s. Robert Corfe is primarily known as a thought-provoking writer of books published in the 21st century, but this work comprises a selection of his articles published in the Finnish press, popular magazines, and learned journals in the 1960s. The collected articles are put into context for a contemporary readership by a lively introductory chapter entitled, Seeing The Future Through The Past, which describes how Scandinavia was 50 years in advance of Britain in terms of political thinking and social development. And now Britain has caught up and shares in the benefits and also the dis-benefits of a modernised technological society. Of considerable interest are the articles on British society and its problems, as viewed through the eyes of a British resident acclimatised to the cultural environment of Finnish life.The articles reflect clearly the development of the author's political ideas on the need for a classless society in more effectively contributing to communal prosperity and internal harmony.
The Scandinavians' enviable policy of neutrality and disengagement from the conflicts of the great power blocs in achieving national security is highlighted as contributing to the happiness of their people. In view of an impending new Cold War between Russia and the West, the arguments developed are perhaps of greater significance today than when they were formulated more than 40 years ago. Many of these ideas were to be given greater depth in the author's major works published many years later in the 21st century. Perhaps most entertaining in this collection is the delicious satirical story, What The Watchdog Saw, a savage attack on the absurdities of the British far left as well as those of the far right. As a percipient introduction to the mindset of the enlightened Scandinavian people, based on both scholarship and personal experience, this book could hardly be bettered for such a purpose.
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Robert Corfe is a prolific author who has written extensively on the benefits of social capitalism. He is a political scientist and businessman, with considerable experience of political life, and in this book, for the first time, are assembled together a remarkable collection of far-seeing articles originally published in the Finnish press in the 1960s. They comprise essays on political and social topics on Scandinavia and Britain, a satirical short story, and a major lecture on the future of Europe which predicted some of the future problems of the EU almost fifty years hence. For many years he was a senior manager in manufacturing industry, and later a management consultant advising SMEs, usually in the engineering sector. He is also the author of three autobiographical books under different pseudonyms: Death in Riyadh dark secrets in hidden Arabia (Geoff Carter), based on his experiences as a businessman in the Middle East in the 1980s; My Conflict With A Soviet Spy the story of the Ron Evans spy case (Eddie Miller), based on his adventures in Scandinavia in the 1960s; and, The Girl From East Berlin (James Furner), an epic novel relating the story of his love affair in the old German capital at the end of the 1950s. In 1987 he founded the Campaign For Industry, to which he was elected Chairman, and for which he wrote many pamphlets on the problems of contemporary business. His broad experience, frequent travels overseas, and years of residence in Continental Europe have given him a unique perspective of socio-economic issues.
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