Presentation of Duncan's book at the Hungarian Institute of Paris

It'll take me a bit to get the pictures up associated with this post... Thanks for your patience...

Sent to me by Sabine Fazekas and Florence Labruyere



7 novembre 2006

Soirée littéraire à l’Institut hongrois de Paris
(Literary evening at the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Paris)

Photo (coming soon):
From RIGHT to LEFT (de DROITE à gauche):
Adam Biro, publisher (Biro Editions)
Jean-François Bouthors, Duncan’s publisher (Buchet-Chastel)
Florence La Bruyère (translator)
Karoly Kecskeméti, historian (moderator of the debate)
Phil Casoar, writer (Les héros de Budapest)
André Farkas, writer (Budapest, la tragédie telle que je l’ai vécue)
Henri-Christian Giraud, writer (Le printemps en octobre, une histoire de la révolution hongroise)
A participant standing for the historian Nicolas Bauquet, author of a book on Budapest, 1956

The round table was chaired by historian Karoly Kecskeméti who as a young student of literature was himself involved in the Hungarian revolution.

The various writers gave a fascinating insight on history. Through Henri-Christian Giraud, who has devoted 20 years of his life to researching the revolution, we learnt that Russian additional troops and tanks moved into Hungary as early as…October 23rd ! It is therefore clear that the Kremlin had decided at a very early stage to crush the uprising and only waited a little to launch the assault on the 4th of November.

André Farkas, a young reporter in 1956, described how the revolutionaries managed to introduce an immediate decentralisation in the country. In Miskolc and in other towns, workers’ councils were established without waiting for instructions from the capital.
Phil Casoar spoke about all those extremely young workers, employed in factories who came from a very poor background and were the real “soldiers” of the revolution. They were even ready to fight against…own members of their family who stood on the other side, he said.

And Karoly Kecskeméti outlined how Duncan Shiels unveiled new aspects of the pre – revolution days. One example of it was the way Duncan described Julia Rajk fighting for the rehabilitation of her husband. This had not been written before, he said. Jean-François read out an excerpt of the book where Julia bravely addresses members of the infamous Communist Party : “Not only did you kill my husband but you also kill all dignity on this country”.


Soon we will post the speech Florence gave on Duncan.

Duncan Shiels Memorial Football Match

This message comes from Attila Ledenyi:

Duncan's match on Sunday, 19 November, will be at 12 noon on a pitch near Kelenfoldi Palyaudvar, a one-minute walk from the station, on the left hand side from the underpath.

18 November - details - RSVP!

Dear friends,

We have finally confirmed the location for the memorial evening in Budapest,
the celebration of Duncan's life here -

It will take place at the Feszek Club - in the restaurant (just to the right, when you enter the building).
The address:
Kertesz u. 36.
(at the corner of Dob u.)
VII. district
You can also take a look at:
http://www.feszeketterem.hu

We will start the evening from 7 p.m.,
with tributes to begin from 8 p.m.,
and we can stay as long as we like.

The basic elements will be:
a cold buffet and a welcome drink included
(if anyone would like something additionally,
it will be a la carte, to be paid separately)
additional drinks to be paid separately;

screening of film and photo material
(please let us know if you have anything you would like to contribute to this -
by Wednesday, 15 November)

tributes to Duncan's life and memory -
in the form of speech, readings, song, or anything else -
PLEASE let us know as soon as possible -
until Wednesday, 15 November -
if you would like to contribute to this
(there will be interpretation between English and Hungarian)

following the tributes,
the party will begin, with music,
both recorded music, and we hope more than one live musical performance -
and the opportunity for dancing -


For the rental of the space, the rental of equipment,
music, cold buffet and one welcome drink,
we would like to ask for a contribution of HUF 2500 per person.

We would also like to ask for RSVP by Wednesday, 15 November,
as we need to have some idea of how much food and drink we need...

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions,
if you need further information, and especially
if you would like to contribute to the evening in any way.


One additional event in the planning for the weekend
is a Duncan Shiels Memorial football match -
with a preliminary plan for late morning, Sunday, 19 November -
more information on that to come.


with thanks,
looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday,
Adele

adele@c3.hu

Duncan in Beirut

Katalin Kluge sent me this picture of Nick and Duncan which Duncan sent to her from Beirut, Lebanon last year (October 2006).

Andrew Sheils' Eulogy

The 1st of November day had clear blue skys as if Duncan was still bringing sunshine into our lives. Around 50 family and friends attended Duncan's funeral and most commented it was a very Duncan event. We celebrated his life at a reception afterwards and socialized, Duncan was certainly there chinking glass with his friends.

Mum and myself would like to give a heart felt thanks to all those that could make it, and especially all those that couldn't be here and took the trouble to send such lovely messages.

If anyone would like to make a donation to Cancer Research UK in memory of Duncan, you are ivited to send it to:


C/o Derby and District Funeral Service,
Unit 4a Park Farm Centre,
Allestree, Derby, DE22 2OJ
Tel: 01332550033


The following is my tribute to Duncan.

Andrew Shiels

------------------snip----------------

Duncan Shiels

The gift of friendship, generosity, openness, professionalism, competitive and intellectually curious were some of the many tributes paid to Duncan by many friends, colleagues and students from many parts of the world.

You knew Duncan in his adult life firstly as a teacher of English, Singer (nearly), Lyricist, Actor, Journalist and Author, and it was fitting that in the last years of his working life he went back to teaching with the Reuters Foundation where he used these qualities to the full.

To me of course, he was a brother, and to understand Duncan's journey in life we must acknowledge he was first a son to Clarice and the late John Shiels.
We were both adopted sons, and proud to be so, the knowledge of this was one of Duncan's earliest memories which I believe introduced a degree of openness and honesty to his early years. Mum came from a Derbyshire family, down to earth and pragmatic, Duncan learnt from her, whatever happened, to pick himself up, brush himself down and start again. I feel sure this was the start to his eternal positive nature. Mum recalls a story of how at the school sports day he said "Mum I don't want to run the race because I know I'll come last" She replied "it doesn't matter where you come as long as you take part". Duncan always took part, often with a passion; one only has to recall his political debates. He later wrote in his note book "I did come last and I didn't like it". The true nature of his competitiveness was to show later in his life on the football field.

Dad was a man of integrity and I can here him speaking to Duncan now "If a job's worth doing, its worth doing properly" Duncan always immersed himself completely into everything he did. The energy and focus he produced to complete his book was evidence of his determined nature to do everything to the best of his ability. So from these early messages he developed into the man we all knew and remember.

The family knew at a very early age Duncan would always do things Duncan's way, a complete individual. In 1958, at the age of 5years old he started school. Only Duncan would develop a technique of walking backwards to school and back.

As children Duncan and myself had the usual sibling quarrels, I still have a scar to show for it, but as adults even though we often had differing political views, we never fell out and I often felt it was largely due to Duncan's generosity of spirit. I was, however, guilty of a considerable sin, I wasn't really interested in football. Fortunately Evan, his nephew and football buddy, continues Duncan's passion for the game and his beloved Nottingham Forest.

Many of Duncan's friends remember that he had the uncanny knack of being in the right place at the time. I remember Duncan backpacking around India and bumping into David Lean filming ‘A Passage to India'. Within an hour he was recruited to be the stand-in for Sir Alec Guiness. While in full make-up and costume, he thought nothing of spending the days and weeks playing cards with the premier league of British acting. It was perfectly natural thing to do for Duncan. Later in life though I began to understand wherever Duncan was, his optimism made it the right place, and his spirit made it the right time.

That spirit was still with him in the last weeks of his life. He faced his imminent death with courage and dignity. There was always a smile, friendship and optimism. He never complained or asked why me? Typically Duncan managed to help everyone else to come to terms with his illness.

If Duncan were here today I am certain he would be slightly irritated at many of the tributes paid, he was a modest man, and he didn't need much. One of Duncan's closest friends said "Duncan didn't collect possessions, he collected friends".
We all have our own special memories of Duncan and we will miss him. He did manage to achieve much in a relatively short life and his sense of humour had an important support role throughout. I do remember the time he told me he had managed to get his book published, I can't remember him happier, when he eventually held a copy in his hand at the Barbican event, I could sense the joy that he had just made it in the end.

I will miss him popping up out of the blue sharing his new adventures, projects and friendships.

I will miss the phone call, hearing the warm, friendly and slightly elongated "Hi, its Duncan here".

Andrew Shiels