77 lives

For the first time in a long time I lost the text I had written for this entry.

I had written about a book I had gotten very involved in reading about the massacre and bombing carried out by 'lone-wolf' terrorist and mass-murderer Anders Breivik. The events took place on 22 July 2011 in Oslo and the island of Utøya.

The book is called 'One of us: the story of a massacre and its aftermath' by Asne Seierstad and was published in English translation in 2016. It is a searing journalistic account of Breivik's life and a blow by blow account of his bomb building and successful attack on both the Norwegian state and the future leadership of the once dominant Labour Party.

It is a terrible story and places the young lives of some of the victims alongside the monstrosity of the murders carried out by Breivik. In so doing it gives some explanation as to why this person did these deeds and also raises lots of questions as to how it was possible for a lone individual to build a 900kg bomb and acquire a lethal arsenal of weapons and the chemicals for the bomb without detection, using You Tube and other videos and information on the internet as his guide. It also raises questions as to the lack of security around Oslo's government buildings and serious shortcomings in the police response.

The foxglove in the photo has about 80 visible flowers and flower buds - coincidentally about the number of people Breivik killed on that dreadful day.