11th January 2012 Washington DC, USA
I’m just on the train back from a trip to New York City—my first excursion out of DC since arriving in the US at the end of November. Of course, I’ve been to NYC many times before (indeed Layla and I went there on our honeymoon) but it’s a very different experience to go to […]
2nd December 2011
I was in Sydney this week with the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, who are conducting a study on gambling. The group consisted of three Conservatives, one Lib Dem and one Labour MP, and was led by committee chair John Whittingdale MP, who I used to work with 25 years ago […]
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28th October 2011 Nairobi, Kenya
This week sees the fifth year of the Somali Week Festival in London, organised by the Kayd Somali Arts and Culture organisation. The British Office for Somalia is a proud sponsor of this event, which brings together poets, writers and musicians from across Somalia to perform in the UK. This year’s artists and performers include […]
14th September 2011
How good to be in Bucharest now that the ‘George Enescu’ festival is here! When I first saw the programme for this year’s twentieth festival, I could not quite believe my eyes. It looked like one of those conference programmes which promise the President, three Ministers and the British Ambassador, but when you turn up […]
21st July 2011
I spent Tuesday in Kecskemet, also known as the “Famous City”, the “City of Tolerance” (on account of the large number of churches in the centre) and, informally, the “Capital of Art Nouveau” – and there are certainly some splendid examples of secessionist architecture there. In addition to meeting the Vice Mayor (photo above), the […]
25th February 2011
What do an artist from Afghanistan and a Ukrainian dancer have in common? The answer is that both are big fans of Ukraine who are enriching the country’s cultural life. I’m delivering a short speech at an event at the M17 Cultural Centre in Kyiv organised by the International Organisation for Migration on a cold […]