Background
Terry Waite, whose entry in Who's Who ironically records one of his hobbies as "travel, especially in remote parts of the world, " was born on May 31, 1939, the son of a village policeman, and spent his early life in Styal, Cheshire.
( This is a thoughtful and sensitive book from a man who...)
This is a thoughtful and sensitive book from a man who endured the fear and loneliness of captivity. Now, years later, Terry Waite explores solitude in its many forms. ,Stella Rimington DBE, former Director General of MI5 No one is better qualified to write about solitude than Terry Waite, who spent nearly five years of his life in solitary confinement. His exploration of solitude he calls it a saunter takes him from his personal ordeal to the Australian outback, to the home of a former British double agent in Moscow, and beyond. His book will be of great value to those who have suffered from too much company or too little, or are interested in the phenomenon of being alone, which is not at all the same as being lonely. Terry Waites saunter through solitude is wide ranging, original, well written and (best of all) companionable. Martin Bell OBE, UNICEF ambassador and former war reporter This is a wonderfully perceptive and engaging book. Terry Waite takes the reader deep into other worlds, both geographical and psychological, from which they will emerge enlightened and spiritually enriched. Ranulph Fiennes OBE, explorer, writer and poet Some people long to find it, others long to escape it. But, whether we welcome or dread it, solitude is something we all experience in different forms at different points in our lives. After enduring nearly five years of solitary confinement, in cruel and terrifying conditions, Terry Waite discovered that he was drawn to find out more about the power of solitude in the lives of other people. The result is this haunting book, in which he recalls his encounters with people who have experienced some very different ways of being solitary: among them the peaceful solitude of remote and beautiful places; the unsought and often unnoticed solitude of lonely people living in the midst of busy cities; the deceptive solitude of those living in the twilight world of espionage; the enforced solitude of the convict and the prisoner of war; and, finally, the inescapable solitude of those who are drawing near to death. Through all these encounters, and through the memories and reflections they trigger in the authors mind, we see how solitude shapes the human soul and how it can be a force for good in our own lives, if we can only learn to use it well.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075CRWZ9T/?tag=2022091-20
(In this moving sequence of poetry and prose, Terry Waite ...)
In this moving sequence of poetry and prose, Terry Waite recalls the highs and lows of his life, both during his ordeal as a hostage and in the happier years of humanitarian work that have followed. In doing so he gives us a glimpse into the depths of faith, hope and love that sustained him through his time of suffering. At the same time, he bears witness to the enduring qualities of forgiveness, truth and reconciliation that are still so desperately needed in the world today.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0281077614/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K961W0Q/?tag=2022091-20
( In contrast to his earlier bestseller Taken on Trust, t...)
In contrast to his earlier bestseller Taken on Trust, this amusing new book shows another side to the man who was a hostage in Beirut for five years, yet it retains his carefully written prose and powers of description. In Lagos, Terry Waite had to stop an official motorcade in order to lean out of the Archbishop's car to be sick. In Scotland, Waite is recognized on the street by a passerby, but the Archbishop, dressed in open-neck shirt, is not. Every story amuses, and in doing so the ancient Episcopalian Church of England is revealed in a new light. All too rarely does the Church laugh at itself.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0007106335/?tag=2022091-20
( This autobiography describes the hours before and after...)
This autobiography describes the hours before and after Terry Waite was taken hostage. Waite analyzes his thoughts and feelings immediately prior to captivity. It is also an account of his years in solitary confinement and of the inner strengths which enabled him to survive.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0340609699/?tag=2022091-20
(For the first year of Terry Waite's solitary confinement ...)
For the first year of Terry Waite's solitary confinement in Beirut he was given nothing to read. During those days not only did he write his autobiography in his head, but he also attempted to remember the books, poems and prayers he had read during his life. Eventually his guards mellowed and he was given books. He received a wide variety ranging from Herodotus to novels. Now, Terry Waite has collected together selections from the books he remembered, the books he received and the books he wished he had been given. This selection provokes memories of childhood, travels and captivity as he vividly recalls personal stories and anecdotes and as he takes the reader down the corridors of his memory. Footfalls in Memory, through the works of Solzhenitsyn, T.S. Eliot, William Styron, John Bunyan, Dostoevsky, Irina Ratushinskaya and many others, plus extracts from the Bible, and the Book of Common Prayer, gives another fascinating insight into a life illuminated by literature of all kinds.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385488629/?tag=2022091-20
Terry Waite, whose entry in Who's Who ironically records one of his hobbies as "travel, especially in remote parts of the world, " was born on May 31, 1939, the son of a village policeman, and spent his early life in Styal, Cheshire.
Waite was educated at Stockton Heath County Secondary school where he became head boy. He left school at 16, having learned the prayer book by heart. He then took a degree in theology at the Church Army College in London but decided he did not want to be ordained a priest.
On his third try in 1987, he himself was taken hostage and not freed until almost five years later. Even after publication of his book Taken on Trust, chronicling his 1, 763 days of being held by Islamic fundamentalists in Lebanon, Terry Waite remains a controversial figure.
For many years he was a hero to the British media and public. When he was captured and throughout the years during which there was no news of his whereabouts, prayers were said in churches all over Britain for his safe return. To some he remained a saintly and courageous figure, the innocent envoy from the archbishop of Canterbury, whose intercession saved the lives of a number of Middle East hostages.
But to others, notably including journalists specializing in Middle East affairs, he was a muddle-headed meddler and publicity-seeker who allowed himself to be used by Oliver North and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Waite allegedly took credit for hostage releases that had almost everything to do with arms deals and little to do with his efforts. To those critics he was a man who defied his church's wishes for his own vainglory and who put his family on the rack to feed his own hunger for headlines.
When he was united with fellow hostages John McCarthy, Terry Anderson, and Tom Sutherland during the last year of his captivity, they were reported to have found him an awkward companion. And in Taken on Trust he is evasive about his knowledge of the Iran-Contra affair.
Before his release in November 1991 he was frequently blindfolded, beaten, and subjected to mock executions. He lived much of the time chained to a radiator, suffered desperately from asthma, and was transported in a giant refrigerator as his captors moved him about. And yet he emerged from his ordeal able to make a witty and eloquent speech to the waiting media before even greeting his family.
In his earlier efforts for other hostages he had shown total disregard for his own safety as virtually the only western figure who ever gained direct access to the kidnappers.
He did not last the two-year National Service period in the Grenadier Guards, being discharged after a year because of an allergy to the dye in the uniforms.
His first job was as an adviser on adult education to the bishop of Bristol from 1964 to 1968. Soon after that, working in Africa for the bishop of Uganda, he was taken hostage for the first time with his wife, Frances, and two children.
In 1980 Robert Runcie, the archbishop of Canterbury, appointed him secretary for Anglican Communion Affairs to work with churches abroad and to organize the archbishop's foreign trips. In this role he quickly became a media figure. After a few months he played the key role in securing the release of a missionary, his wife, and the bishop of Iran's secretary, Jean Waddell, when they were held on spy charges in Tehran.
At one stage he greeted the arrival of five gunmen in a cell where he was celebrating holy communion by coolly repeating his sermon. After his efforts had led to the release of a fourth detainee, appreciation for Waite's role was shown with the award of a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in the next honors list. Waite's reputation as an emissary extraordinary was cemented when in 1984 he established contact with Colonel Muammar Gadaffi in Libya, where four Britons had been detained following the murder of a policewoman outside the Libyan Embassy in London.
He eventually secured their release after protracted negotiations and his own theological discussions with the Libyan leader on Christmas Day. Over the next two years there followed a series of efforts on behalf of four American hostages held in Lebanon, including one when he was dropped at dead of night by an American helicopter. In this period some critical articles began to appear suggesting that Waite was obsessed with his own publicity, but he insisted that although he had frequent meetings with Oliver North he was never told about the efforts to trade hostages for arms.
His third and final trip to Lebanon in 1987 was made despite a visit from the British ambassador, who urged him not to go because the Amal militia had lost out to the more extreme pro-Iranian Hizbollah faction. Waite himself described the trip that led to his capture and incarceration as "a walk into a minefield. " But he insisted he had to go ahead because he was the one person who had met the kidnappers face to face.
Soon after his release in 1991 Terry Waite resigned his position with the archbishop and became fully engaged with writing his book Taken on Trust, published in September 1993.
He took up a fellowship at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and said that he hoped to use proceeds of his writing to help the poor and to work for justice and reconciliation. True to his word, in July 1996 Waite, along with fellow former hostage John McCarthy, sent messages urging the release of four people on the first anniversary of their capture in Kashmir.
Waite was the Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs for the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, in the 1980s. As an envoy for the Church of England, he travelled to Lebanon to try to secure the release of four hostages, including the journalist John McCarthy. He was himself kidnapped and held captive from 1987 to 1991.
He is president of the charity Y Care International (the YMCA's international development and relief agency) and patron of AbleChildAfrica and Habitat for Humanity Great Britain. He is also president of Emmaus UK, a charity for formerly homeless people.
Waite's various honors include the Commander of the Order of the British Empire bestowed upon him by Queen Elizabeth II .
He is also a co-founder of Y Care International, a development agency linked to the YMCA movement. In 2004, he founded Hostage UK, an organisation designed to give support to hostage families.
( In contrast to his earlier bestseller Taken on Trust, t...)
(In this moving sequence of poetry and prose, Terry Waite ...)
( This is a thoughtful and sensitive book from a man who...)
(For the first year of Terry Waite's solitary confinement ...)
( This autobiography describes the hours before and after...)
Although his parents were only nominally religious, he showed a commitment to Christianity from an early age and later became a Quaker and an Anglican.
In the early 1976 he worked for the Roman Catholic Church as a widely-traveled consultant on missionary work.
Quotations: When the Irangate storm broke, he said in a statement from his archbishop's Lambeth Palace headquarters: "At no time have I ever had any dealings in arms or money. "
In 2008, he joined the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers.
Although he says of himself in his book: "Inwardly you are a small, frightened child, anxious to impress people, " there is certainly no denying the courage of the seventeen stone (238 pounds), 6 foot 7 inches man who spent almost five years in captivity, nearly four years of it in solitary confinement, after he was seized by Islamic Jihad from a go-between's house in Lebanon on January 20, 1987.
His wife's name is Helen Frances Watter with whom he has two children.
