29th June 2012 Washington DC, USA
Sometimes you don’t know you have an addiction until the thing you’re addicted to is suddenly snatched from you. This is what happened to me on moving to the US seven months ago, and finding myself embroiled in a lengthy procedure to get an American smartphone contract. My realisation happened insidiously. Getting ridiculously lost somewhere […]
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7th March 2012 Washington DC, USA
My mother’s mother was born early in the 20th century in a small Welsh mining village. She was the third of 11 children and she left school – illegally – at 12 to work in a factory. This was not uncommon – indeed only her very youngest sister finished school. Married at 17, to avoid […]
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6th February 2012 Washington DC, USA
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… going to the UK this weekend. Flying into Heathrow on Saturday morning, I found Britain in great excitement about Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday. So it was clearly the best of times to head to Broadstairs, Dickens’ favourite holiday destination where he spent his […]
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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 […]
5th January 2012 Washington DC, USA
When I was offered the dream job of Counsellor for Global Issues at the British Embassy in Washington DC, clearly I couldn’t refuse. It’s a dream job because of the range of issues my portfolio covers—diplomacy on trade, energy, the environment, transport, science and innovation—and because of the country and context, since the US is […]