| AdminHistory | Nicholas William Bethell, 4th Baron Bethell, was born on 13 July 1938. He was educated at Harrow and at Pembroke College, Cambridge between 1958 and 1961, where he read Arabic and Persian. He trained as a Russian interpreter during national service and then worked as a sub-editor with the 'The Times Literary Supplement'. Between 1964 and 1967 he was employed as a BBC script editor in radio drama. Bethell translated Polish and Russian plays into English, including Slawomir Mrozek's 'Six Plays' and 'Tango' and in 1965 he met Anna Akhmatova and recorded her reading her poems in a BBC studio in London. Together with David Burg he translated Alexander Solzhenitsyn's works 'Cancer Ward' and 'The Love Girl' into English, although later he was to become embroiled in a dispute with Solzhenitsyn over translation rights. His other works included a biography of the Polish leader Wladyslaw Gomulka.
In 1967 Bethell became a member of the House of Lords and was appointed a Lord in Waiting in Edward Heath's Conservative government in June 1970, where he sought to continue his literary output. However, following the publication of an article in the satirical magazine Private Eye, alleging that Bethell had unwittingly assisted the KGB, he resigned and sued the magazine in court [see BTL/8]. Bethell became the Conservative Member of European Parliament (MEP) for London North-West between 1975 and 1994 and from 1999.
Within the European Parliament he continued his human rights engagement and lobbying, especially on behalf of Soviet dissidents including Andrei Sakharov and Oleg Gordievsky. He travelled extensively in communist countries, meeting both officials and dissidents. His activities led him to being banned from entering the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries from 1972. In 1984 Bethell engineered the release of a number of Soviet prisoners of war held by the Mujahedin in Afghanistan; and in 1989 he travelled to Kabul with the agreement of both the British and Soviet governments to secure the release of Soviet and Afghan prisoners. In January 1992 he met the President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, who presented him with a watch as a gesture of thanks for his campaigning on the issue.
As an MEP, Bethell was to campaign increasingly on economic matters, for example on behalf of European consumers, including founding the "Freedom of the Skies" movement which helped to open up competition in the civil aviation sector.
Published works include:
'Gomulka, his Poland and his Communism' (London: Longmans, Green and Co., and New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969)
'The Palestine Triangle: the struggle between the British, the Jews and the Arabs, 1935-48' (London: Deutsch, 1979)
'The Great Betrayal : the untold story of Kim Philby's biggest coup' (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1984)
'The Last Secret : forcible repatriation to Russia, 1944-1947' (with an introduction by Hugh Trevor-Roper. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1995)
'Spies and other secrets' (London: Penguin Books, 1995)
'The War Hitler Won, September 1939' (London: Allen Lane, 1972)
Translations include:
Mrozek, Slawomir: ' Six plays' by Slawomir Mrozek ; translated by Nicholas Bethell (London: Cape, 1967)
Mrozek, Slawomir: 'Tango' translated by Nicholas Bethell, adapted by Tom Stoppard (London: Cape, 1968)
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isaevich, 1918-: 'Cancer ward' translated by Nicholas Bethell and David Burg. Part 1 (London: Bodley Head, 1968)
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isaevich, 1918-: 'Cancer ward' translated by Nicholas Bethell and David Burg. Part 2 (London: Bodley Head, 1971)
Other works include:
Leipman, Flora, 1918-: 'The long journey home : the memoirs of Flora Leipman' foreword by Nicholas Bethell; epilogue by Gwen Robyns (London : Corgi , 1988)
'Kontinent : the alternative voice of Russia and Eastern Europe' (editorial advisers Nicholas Bethell and Barry Rubin) (London : Deutsch, 1976)
References:'Destinies: Life of Lord Bethell' published in 'New Times' Moscow March 1992 (no. 10) [Ref. BTL/5/7]
'Your MEPs: The Lord Bethell' website of the European Parliament at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/archive.do?language=EN
'Nicholas Bethell, Curriculum Vitae [Ref. BTL/9/6]
'Suggested biographical note' [Ref. BTL/9/6] |