Consulting: I have been working as an independent consultant since 2022. I am a specialist consultant with the Saferworld Women Peace and Security Helpdesk, where my work includes high-level consultancies with FCDO. I do other independent consultancies for a range of international organisations and institutions. My work focuses on peace building and security intersections. This includes some work on counterterrorism, and a consistent strong focus on gender and working in partnership with marginalised communities to reduce and prevent violence and conflicts, and to increase inclusion.
I have enjoyed some clear successes in my work, especially in working with partners to address power imbalances and to reduce violence within and across communities, as well as high-level interventions in international advocacy and dialogue. I’m currently available for work. Please contact me for a detailed CV if you’d like to discuss a consultancy, or other professional opportunities.
My informal bio: I’ve always been restless, curious, a wanderer thirsty for wilder landscapes, a stravaiger (one who takes a long stroll). Over the years my journeys have taken me from Central Asia to the Balkans, Gaza, Burma, the Central African Republic (CAR), then Mali, Senegal, and now a home in Argyll on Scotlan’s salty West Coast. I’ve survived bad times, including living under siege in Gaza, and a bloody coup in Bangui, and rocked good times, like a sweaty rock concert in Yangon with Iron Cross, Burma’s premier rock band.
I spent seven intense, fruitful years in central and West Africa, working with refugees, and communities in environments wracked with armed violence. These days I travel more in the Highlands – though I just spent a winter in Morocco – and have found Scottish communities of artists and activists who are welcoming and supportive.
Regarding my books, I started writing after living in Mongolia for several years, firstly in the Capital, Ulaanbaatar, the coldest capital city on earth, followed by a year in a remote village called Tsengel, where I made my home in a yurt. My first book, Hearing Birds Fly, based on my time in the village, won the inaugural Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize in 2004 for ‘the book that most evokes the spirit of a particular place’.
I used much of the prize money to research my second book, Selling Olga, an investigation into human trafficking across Europe, published in 2006. But when I met the Palestinian writer Raja Shehadeh, he suggested I could work in the Palestinian West Bank. So I did. And from the city of Ramallah, I moved to Gaza, and worked with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.
I studied Arabic, and made friends for life amidst the life under military siege. My third book, Meet Me in Gaza, tells stories of ordinary life inside Gaza, beach visits, salty jokes, visits to the ancient Hammam al- Sammara, the fabulous lingerie market, vivid textures of daily life inside the Strip; and the violent, poignant history of Gaza herself, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities on earth. This feels especially relevant now, with the continuing relentless slaughter of Palestinians across the Strip and the West Bank by the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu. I have written many blogs about Gaza and Palestine, so do scroll through them.
I left Gaza in 2009, and returned to Scotland for a few years. Then, inspired by the work of War Child, I travelled to the Central African Republic (CAR) in the summer of 2013, just after the country was throttled by a takeover from the Seleka, a militant alliance including Chadian mercenaries that seized control of CAR. I spent 6 months based in the small capital, Bangui, traveling much of the country by motor bike.
I was offered a position with a peacebuilding NGO, Conciliation Resources, to manage a national peace-building project. I love peace-building because it is not about distributing cash or food, but personal, communal and national transformation from the inside: essentially, the laying of radical foundations for trust, regeneration and reclamation of space on all levels.
When the project in CAR eventually came to an end, I took a few months off, to re-assess my life, refreshing my Arabic in Lebanon, and volunteering on the Greek isle of Samos in a camp for refugees. I can’t speak highly enough of Samos Volunteers, entirely run by volunteers, who continue to support refugees on the island years after this story vanished from most news.
I was soon recruited to manage a national peace-building program in Mali with International Alert, and moved to Bamako: home to lilting music and other cultural richnesses – and a political landscape so complex I had to stay for two years just to figure it out! My work included supporting communities in Timbuktu. I was able to see the fabled Ahmed Baba Institute, where sacred manuscripts are still stored, and the small city centre that has somehow endured its epic history, and looked just as I thought Timbuktu would…..
Since then, I have spent some time working in Senegal, and now find myself ‘at home’ back in Scotland. I love my life in all its flowing, messy and unpredictable beauty. I am currently working from home, and have begun a new book. Right now I am in a small cabin in the Hebrides, perched on the edge of a sunlit, windswept island, where yesterday I swam in a clear freezing sea and picked fresh seaweed for my dinner!
Browse my website, read my blog, and do leave a message or comment. Thanks (big smile)
