25th July 2020
Image ©Aliona Adrianova During my first meeting with Foreign Office Permanent Under-Secretary Sir Simon McDonald in March 2019, when we discussed ideas for the portrait of The Queen that he wanted to commission, I was delighted to hear that he wanted it to feel intimate. He wanted to express Her Majesty’s humanity, rather than creating […]
30th December 2015
Pope Francis has spoken frequently of his belief that the current state of instability in the world, overlain by the global threat of terrorism, is something akin to a “third world war fought piecemeal”. In his message for the World Day of Peace, he noted that, “sadly, war and terrorism, accompanied by kidnapping, ethnic or […]
6th November 2013
I received my CMG from HM The Queen at Buckingham Palace last week. Amidst all the pomp and circumstance you actually feel more nervous than you might expect, as you await those final few moments before you step forward to have the medal ribbon placed around your neck. For some reason the orchestra struck up […]