Beginner’s pluck: Researcher and writer Noel Russell

'The Saved and the Spurned' is a meticulously researched account of the plight of persecuted Jews who sought refuge in Northern Ireland in 1938

Noel Russell has written and produced several historical documentaries for BBC Northern Ireland, RTÉ, and TG4.

Noel was first published at 17 — when, having won a school’s competition, his story appeared in a book called Imagine.

“I became a journalist at 18,” he says, “and bar six years at university, have been one ever since.”