How Many Miles to Babylon? (novel) starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Alec and Christopher Fairbank as Jerry. In 2005 the actor and director Alan Stanford adapted the novel for stage and it was produced by Second Age Theatre Company and directed by David Parnell. The play has been performed several times subsequently. The book featured as the "Book at Bedtime" on BBC Radio 4 in April 2013. "In the Army :" How Many Miles to Babylon? (novel) How Many Miles to Babylon? is a novel by Irish writer Jennifer Johnston, first published in 1974. The novel explores the relationship of two men, an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, Alexander Moore,
Irish bouzouki was introduced into Irish traditional music in the mid-1960s by Johnny Moynihan of the popular folk group Sweeney's Men. During the recording of their 1968 eponymous album, "Sweeney's Men", Andy Irvine also played Moynihan's bouzouki on the track "Johnston". Shortly after he returned from Eastern Europe in late 1969, Irvine met Dónal Lunny – who had been playing guitar up to that point – and gave him a Greek bouzouki he had brought back from his travels. Being left-handed, Lunny reversed the strings and critically, replaced the octave strings with unison strings, thus fundamentally changing the character of the instrument.