part of a state bounded by the sea and a border with Ireland.

One of the problems already noted with Crying in the Wilderness  is that the author takes so discreet a position that his role as interpreter of the evidence almost disappears. At times this can be frustrating, particularly as a bit of contextualisation would often transform the significance of the evidence presented. The copious well-presented excerpts from the talks which Sayers gave on local radio during and after the war would, for instance, have been made all the more interesting if some consideration had been given to the significance of the military giving over so many of its frequencies for commercial use. Even so, the very fact that Gailey has made use of radio transcripts at all sets him apart and is indicative of the originality of approach which characterises all his work. These broadcasts, made week after week for more than a decade and on several types of programme, reveal something of the despair which Sayers felt at the divergence between his view of the world and that of his audience. Here, scholars may find evidence of two types of unionist, for while ayers spoke of those developing an 'Ulster consciousness', he clearly lamented the fact.

The alert reader will find much to inform other debates too - much of which might have been left out if Gailey had elected to write a standard biography. In a letter to Connolly Gage, for instance, Sayers explains exactly why the Unionist Party had made such a mess of the debate on whether it should admit and support Roman Catholics: effectively, it was a case of the Party getting one over on the Government. While this is interesting in itself, there is also cause now to wonder if this explains the on-off nature of non-sectarian campaigning throughout the whole Brookeborough era. Elsewhere, there is much to enlighten those who have pondered the economic strategies of post-war Britain: 'Are we just buying employment?' Sayers asks, setting himself apart from the civil servant who initiated the De Lorean debacle thirty years later.

Sayers, of course, was not just a unionist spokesman. The medium which he chose looms large in the book and is likely to be of great interest to media historians and one or two writers on Northern Ireland. As 'the last of the writing editors' Sayers' view of the Thompson Organisation, which bought the Belfast Telegraph  along with many other regional newspapers in the 1960s, is of great interest. Chief amongst his concerns was the prominence accorded to the Find the Ball section, which Sayers saw as damaging the credibility of his all-important leader column. Tellingly, Thompson insisted that the news be fitted around the adverts - a matter of great annoyance to a dedicated hack.