Robert Wilton (born 22 February 1973) is a British-Kosovan writer. He has spent much of his life in the Balkans, including as an advisor to the prime minister of Kosovo and as a Deputy Ambassador for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. As a writer he is known for his Comptrollerate-General series of historical novels, for the first of which he was awarded the Historical Writers' Association Crown.
Robert Wilton grew up in the south-east of England. He attended Whitgift School, in Croydon, and read History at Christ Church, Oxford. In 1995 he joined the UK Ministry of Defence, where he held a variety of posts including as a Private Secretary to three Secretaries of State (the Labour politicians Des Browne, John Hutton and Bob Ainsworth). His Civil Service career also included stints in the Cabinet Office and Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
In 2006, the new Prime Minister of Kosovo, Agim Çeku, asked the British Government for help in developing and running his office. Because of his Whitehall experience and knowledge of the Balkans, Wilton was sent. He advised Çeku on international relations, communications and administration, accompanying the Prime Minister as his assistant in the 2007 Troika talks with Serbia. Wilton also worked for a short while under Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi. He was in Kosovo for the country's independence in February 2008. In 2010 he returned to Kosovo as Head of Policy and Political Affairs in the International Civilian Office, monitoring and advising the Kosovo Government. [1] In 2013 he was appointed Deputy Ambassador of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)'s Presence in Albania. [2]
Since 1992 he has lived with the travel writer and educator Elizabeth Gowing. In 2009, together with a Kosovar friend, they founded The Ideas Partnership, a charity that supports the education and integration of children from marginalised and minority communities, as well as working to protect cultural heritage and the environment. [3]
In the introduction to The Emperor's Gold, Wilton describes how – following a trail that started with a reference in a book to the occupant of his office a century earlier – he found in the Ministry of Defence archives the records of a department or organisation called the Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey. Not widely known or well studied, the Comptrollerate-General is said to have existed for several centuries (sometimes with different forms or names) within the British Government's security and intelligence framework. In the Comptrollerate-General novels, Wilton prints documents from the archive to add background to what he calls 'fictionalisations' of key episodes in British history: taking the narrative from recognised history and the archive’s revelations, and embellishing it with conjectured characterisations and scenes.
In 2012 Wilton was awarded the Historical Writers' Association/Goldsboro Books Crown for best debut historical novel for The Emperor's Gold. [4] [5]
The 2013 Traitor's Field covers the years 1648–51, at the end of the British Civil Wars – broadly the events from the battle of Preston to the battle of Worcester and the escape of Charles II. [6]
To mark the centenary of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, The Spider of Sarajevo was launched in the city on 28 June 2014. The novel presents the events of the weeks leading up to the assassination in the summer of 1914: the activities of four Comptrollerate-General agents travelling through Europe are used to explore the political and espionage context of the time, and the novel also shows the confusion within the evolving structures of British Intelligence. [7]
The 2017 Treason's Spring, set in the French Revolution, is a prequel to The Emperor's Gold/ Treason's Tide. Set in the autumn of 1792, in the increasingly feverish atmosphere following the imprisonment of Louis XVI and the Battle of Valmy. It draws on two historical mysteries, the theft of the French Crown Jewels from the Garde-Meuble and the discovery of a cache of controversial royal correspondence in the Armoire de fer. The novel illuminates the roles of Danton and the young Joseph Fouché. [8]
In 2019 Wilton published the first of a new, lighter series of historical novels, again purporting to be based on found documents, in this case the memoir of a dissolute baronet in the period before World War I. Death and the Dreadnought presents an espionage adventure around the construction of HMS Thunderer (1911) and the development of a new naval Fire-control system. Poison in Paris is set entirely on a journey on the Orient Express. Bolsheviks at the Ballet incorporates incidents from the early history of powered flight and culminates in the Siege of Sidney Street.
Wilton writes frequently on the history and culture of south-eastern Europe, including the role of the international community and the concept of international intervention. A recurring theme is the outsiders' failure adequately to understand the local culture and society where they are operating, and the failure to learn the lessons of previous interventions. His essays on history and on film have appeared in The London Magazine and elsewhere. With Elizabeth Gowing, he published the essay collection No Man's Lands: eight extraordinary women in Balkan history. He also translates Albanian literature into English, and has published and performed his poetry translations; he was commissioned by the descendants of Albanian novelist Sterjo Spasse to translate the author's landmark Pse?.
The Kosovo Liberation Army was an ethnic Albanian separatist militia that sought the separation of Kosovo, the vast majority of which is inhabited by Albanians, from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and Serbia during the 1990s. Albanian nationalism was a central tenet of the KLA and many in its ranks supported the creation of a Greater Albania, which would encompass all Albanians in the Balkans, stressing Albanian culture, ethnicity and nation.
The prime minister of Albania, officially the prime minister of the Republic of Albania, is the head of government of Albania. The office of the prime minister is a core institution in the politics of Albania formed after the Albanian declaration of independence on 28 November 1912. Since that time, the nation has navigated a dynamic political evolution spanning distinct periods, encompassing a monarchy, a communist regime and the eventual democratic order. In 1912, Ismail Qemali was inaugurated as the first prime minister of Albania, guiding the nation toward sovereignty amidst the complex conditions in the Balkans. In 1944, Enver Hoxha implemented a radical change in government, transforming Albania into an authoritarian and isolationist communist regime. In 1991, the nation transitioned into a democracy that marked a notable shift, when Fatos Nano emerged as the first post-communist prime minister of Albania.
Bajram Kosumi, is a Kosovar politician who served as the third prime minister of Kosovo for nearly one year. He was nominated by Kosovan President Ibrahim Rugova and elected Prime Minister by the Kosovo Parliament on 23 March 2005 following his predecessor Ramush Haradinaj's indictment for war crimes and subsequent resignation. Kosumi resigned on 1 March 2006 amid widespread unpopularity and was replaced by former general leader Agim Çeku. He also served as the deputy chairman of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo.
Agim Çeku, also known by the Croatians as the nickname Commander Scorched Earth, is a Kosovo Albanian politician, the former minister of Security Forces in Kosovo and formerly the prime minister. Of military background, he was a commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that fought against Serbian rule in 1998–1999, earlier being a commander in the Croatian War of Independence in the Croatian Army.
The politics of Kosovo takes place in a framework of a multi-party parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the President (Presidenti) is the head of state and the Prime Minister (Kryeministri) the head of government. Parliamentary elections are held every four years, the most recent in 2021.
The Kosovo Protection Corps was a civilian emergency services organization in Kosovo active from 1999 until 2009.
William Graham Walker is a United States Foreign Service diplomat who served as the US ambassador to El Salvador and as the head of the Kosovo Verification Mission.
Hashim Thaçi is a Kosovar Albanian politician who was the president of Kosovo from April 2016 until his resignation on 5 November 2020 to face a war crimes tribunal. He was the first prime minister of Kosovo and the Foreign minister and deputy prime minister in the new cabinet led by Isa Mustafa, which assumed office on 12 December 2014.
Kosovo Serbs are one of the ethnic groups of Kosovo and they form the largest ethnic minority community in Kosovo (5–6%). There are around 100,000 Kosovo Serbs as of 2014 and about half of them live in North Kosovo. Other Kosovo Serb communities live in the Southern municipalities of Kosovo.
The political status of Kosovo, also known as the Kosovo question, is the subject of a long-running political and territorial dispute between the Serbian government and the Government of Kosovo, stemming from the breakup of Yugoslavia (1991–92) and the ensuing Kosovo War (1998–99). In 1999, the administration of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija was handed on an interim basis to the United Nations under the terms of UNSCR 1244 which ended the Kosovo conflict of that year. That resolution reaffirmed the territorial integrity of Serbia over Kosovo but required the UN administration to promote the establishment of 'substantial autonomy and self-government' for Kosovo pending a 'final settlement' for negotiation between the parties.
Miroslav Lajčák is a Slovak politician and diplomat, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. In addition, Lajčák also served as President of the United Nations General Assembly for the 72nd session from 2017 until 2018.
Nikola Šainović is a Serbian politician. A close associate of Slobodan Milošević, he held several important state functions of Serbia and FR Yugoslavia during the 1990s. He has been a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia since the party's foundation.
In 1991, the Socialist Party of Albania, with specific social democratic ideology took control of the country through democratic elections. One year later the Democratic Party of Albania won the new elections. After 1990, Albania has been seeking a closer relationship with the West. What followed were deliberate programs of economic and democratic reform, but the implementation of capitalism led to the proliferation of pyramid schemes. Chaos in late 1996 to early 1997, as a result of the collapse of these pyramid schemes, alarmed the world and prompted the influx of international peacekeeping forces. In 1995, Albania was accepted into the Council of Europe and requested membership in NATO and is a potential candidate country for accession to the European Union. The workforce of Albania has continued to emigrate to Western countries, especially Greece and Italy.
Serbian-Spanish relations are foreign relations between Serbia and Spain. Both countries established diplomatic relations on October 14, 1916. Serbia has an embassy in Madrid. Spain has an embassy in Belgrade. Both countries are member states of the United Nations, Interpol, Council of Europe and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Spain is member state of the European Union since 1986 and Serbia is a candidate country since 2012 negotiating its future membership which Spain is strongly supporting. Spain is member state of NATO alliance while Serbia is a militarily neutral country with strong historical relations with the Non-Aligned Movement. In relation to third parties, both countries supported position of Argentina in its Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute with the United Kingdom in the past.
Sylejman Selimi is the former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, who was convicted of war crimes for the torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners at the Likovac detention center during the Kosovo War. After the war, he served as Security Force of the Republic of Kosovo; he left this position in 2011 and became the ambassador to Albania.
Shote Galica, born as Qerime Radisheva, was a Kachak Albanian insurgent. She has been declared a People's Heroine of Albania.
Edita Tahiri is a leader of the independence of Kosovo, the former deputy prime minister, minister of foreign affairs and peace negotiator. She was also minister for dialogue, minister of public administration and member of parliament in five terms. She was the chief negotiator of the Republic of Kosovo for seven years (2011-2017) in the EU facilitated dialogue, with US support, on normalization of neighborly relations with Serbia. | She was the Deputy Prime minister responsible for foreign policy and national security (2011–2014). She was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo for ten years in difficult time of liberation and independence of Kosovo (1991–2000). She is a signer of the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Kosovo, on 17 February 2008. She is the President of reformist party, the Democratic Alternative of Kosovo (ADK) and Chair of the Regional Women's Lobby in Southeastern Europe (RWLSEE). She is member of the Women Waging Peace Network. and member of the Mediterranean Women's Mediators Network.
Dardan Gashi is a Kosovo Albanian politician and author and was Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo / Minister of the Ministry of Diaspora and Strategic Investments in the cabinet of Ramush Haradinaj from September 2017 to February 2020.
Elizabeth Gowing is a British-Kosovan educator, story-teller and activist.
Ethem Çeku is a historian and former soldier and politician in Kosovo. He was an officer in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the 1998–99 Kosovo War and a minister in the government of Kosovo from 2002 to 2008. Çeku is a member of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK).
Robert Wilton, our first speaker, describes his present job as a day job for the OSCE in Albania but he maintained his links with Kosovo. He was adviser to the prime minister of Kosovo in the years leading up to independence and returned as head of policy for the International Civilian Office monitoring implementation of the Artasari plan.
"There are now over 550 women councillors, several hundred of whom were trained and coached by the nationwide women's network established by the Presence," said Robert Wilton, the Deputy Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania.
The Duchess of Cornwall's final engagement in Kosovo will be to the Ideas Partnership, which is a British charity established by Elizabeth Gowing (an award winning author) and Robert Wilton. The charity, which is the third largest volunteer organisation in Kosovo, provides support to the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities in Kosovo.
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