I think this image of Gaza (I clicked whilst strolling along the beach one afternoon) sums up what I try to do with my writing: to capture the unexpected and often undocumented moments of life in places most of us will never see in situ for ourselves.
Below is a sample of some articles I’ve written (some of them under a pseudonym) on Gaza, the Central African Republic, and others. I have written for the excellent and insightful African Arguments website, including an analysis of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission to the central African Republic (MINUSCA); also see this analysis of CARs political violence in the New Statesman magazine:
This is a very personal interview I did for the world famous Cambridge TV:
Another New Statesman commentary I wrote on how we have not been tackling human trafficking:
I have not been able to visit Gaza for a while, though I’m still in regular contact with many of my friends there, and have promised to go back and see them soon. Last time I managed to get into Gaza, I wrote this article for the New Internationalist magazine:
If you read the New Internationalist magazine (which you really should!) you’ll probably have come across my Gaza blog, which I wrote whilst living and working inside Gaza. If not, here is a sample or two of postings on daily life, in Gaza, the turbulent regional politics, the ‘International community’ and the joys of a good Hammam! I also wrote a ‘Gaza diary’ essay for the The London Review of Books.
Apart from all of the above, I’ve also written reportage for the Guardian, covering human trafficking, Bosnian literature, women’s travel writing, and a bizarre Hay Literary Festival ‘story relay’ between me, Dave Eggers, Rose Tremayne and the wonderful but no-longer with us Beryl Bainbridge!
And here is an interview I did for BBC Radio 4: Excess Baggage
