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Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

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28th October 2016 Kolkata, India

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

Innovating with technology

I hope it won’t have escaped readers’ attention that Britain will be this year’s partner nation for India’s annual TECH Summit on 7-9 November in Delhi. People like me have been talking, tweeting and explaining about TECH Summit – #TECHSmt if you are on Twitter – for some weeks now. Our efforts to disseminate the […]

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21st October 2016 Kolkata, India

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

Another football

One of the surprises of Kolkata for me has been to discover how keen Kolkatans are on sport, and how many sports are played in and around the city. I knew that Kolkata is the home of one of the world’s great cricket grounds – Eden Gardens. As I expected, there is huge interest in […]

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14th October 2016 Kolkata, India

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

Spirit of place

I hosted my first adda last week. An adda is a very Bengali event – it’s a meeting of a group of people to talk about a particular subject. I attended one on my second day in Kolkata organised by the British Council colleagues for the British High Commissioner to India Dominic Asquith who was visiting […]

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30th September 2016 Kolkata, India

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

Learning Visit

India-Nepal border at Sunauli

I was sitting with a group of policemen and border officials in a police hut drinking sweet tea. The younger ones were looking at me anxiously as I started to ask them questions about their work and what they were doing. It was late morning and it was hot outside – around 35°C (or 95 […]

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16th September 2016 Kolkata, India

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

Another country

It is a cracking first line for a novel: The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.* As a thought – that the past is somewhere different – the line sounds very appealing. The past is distant from us and we can’t access it immediately. But the idea is nonsense, of course, […]

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9th September 2016 Kolkata, India

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

From Belarus to … Bengal!

Last December, I flew in for the last time to Minsk, the city of my previous posting. As the aeroplane descended through the clouds, a pale whitish landscape emerged – there had been a light snow fall. Like many Britons, the sight of snow cheers me – I think it’s because we see it only […]

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30th October 2015

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

Open Plan

Several correspondents have asked me for my impressions of Belarus.  So last week I wrote about a day I spent in one town of Belarus.  This week, I decided to write about something very different:  office space. I will be returning to London in January.  I am likely to work in my home department, the […]

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26th October 2015

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

Tempus Fugit

Pahonia window in Novogrudok museum

I am now in the last three months of my posting to Belarus. The time has passed very quickly. I’m suddenly confronting the need to finish things or put them in order for my successor. I’ve also realised that I haven’t done some things I wanted to do, or been to places that I wanted […]

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21st August 2015

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

Habitat

A few weeks ago I had the delight of taking off my shoes and socks, rolling up my trousers and walking onto a raised bog.  I actually stepped onto a bed of moss. It was a nice feeling walking on soft moss and gently sinking.  It was also a bit unnerving as my footsteps slowly […]

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17th August 2015

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by Bruce Bucknell

Former British Deputy High Commissioner Kolkata

Volunteering is GREAT

It’s been hot this summer. I’ve been getting out of Minsk to have some fresh air and enjoy the countryside. This has included visiting British volunteers working outside Minsk. It’s been great to meet them, because most are young people who haven’t experienced living in foreign countries before – except on holiday. I enjoyed hearing […]

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About Bruce Bucknell

Bruce was the British Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata from 2016 to 2019. Previously he was Ambassador in Minsk from July 2012 to January 2016. Bruce grew up on a…

Bruce was the British Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata from 2016 to 2019. Previously he was Ambassador in Minsk from July 2012 to January 2016.

Bruce grew up on a farm in southern England and enjoys walking in the countryside and visiting wild places.

He studied modern history at Durham University, and takes a keen interest in the history of the places he visits.

Bruce used to play cricket when he could see the ball. Now he enjoys watching cricket and many other sports in his spare time.

He has had a varied career in the Foreign Office. Between his postings to Amman (1988-91), Milan (1995-9) and Madrid (2003-7), he has spent much of his career in London mostly dealing with Europe and Africa.

He is married with two grown up sons.