

Humphrey Hawksley’s work as a BBC foreign correspondent has taken him to crises on every continent. He been expelled from Sri Lanka, had death threats from several extreme regimes and traced Graham Greene’s footsteps in Sierra Leone . His passion for borders has influenced his writing with the Cold War and espionage prominent themes in his popular thrillers. On this episode we talk war zones, politics, the EU, Trump, guns, Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan and the pain of accidently tipping a well-known country music star on the streets of Nashville.
On this episode we cover:
Victorian Grandeur at The National Liberal Club, founded by William Gladstone
The UKIP leader with his mistress who darkened the Liberal Club’s door
Paddy Ashdown, Charles Kennedy, Menzies Campbell
The worldwide locations for his books – Man On Ice and Man on Edge
His first BBC assignment to Sri Lanka
His first exclusion from a country
The Tamil population initially being repressed by the government
Then turning into ‘the most brutal terrorist group in the world’
The dire situation in Hong Kong
Being at a turning point in world politics
The rise of the far right
As a journalist he likes a good story
30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall
The cycle has turned – a generation forgetting what has happened before it
The EU being incremental in preventing war
Japan versus South Korea
Brexit not being unique around the world
The post 9/11 war on terror
If he wasn’t a journalist he would be worried!
The current movement not having a Blowin’ in the Wind yet
John Simpson thinking the threat of Russia is overestimated
The power of online meddling
Could the third world war be online?
Russia wanting to re-create a significant zone of influence
Political changes after the Tiananmen Square massacre and fall of the Berlin wall
The Orwellian rise of Russian and Chinese enemies
Death threats on answer machines in Sri Lanka
Death threats by phone in the Philippines
The BBC being wrongly accused of paying insurgents to blow people up
The British Embassy versus the American Embassy
Whether he’s been afraid in war zones
Lisa’s Nan giving birth during an air raid on the Wirral
More shootings and bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan
Being confused about what people want to achieve
The West not planning what would happen next after Saddam and Gaddafi
Questioning the West’s reaction
Tracing Graham Greene’s steps in Sierra Leone
The bleakness of the US/Russian border where two super powers meet
Little Diomedes and Big Diomedes
Roman Abramovich being governor of Chukotka
Writing thrillers based on borders
Cold being cold – whether you have the right clothes or not
Hair freezing competitions in Canada
Trump’s wall in Colorado
The plan to build a tunnel or a bridge from Alaska to Russia
Greta Thunberg speaking to the whole world and being listened to
Should we off-set our travel miles
Addis Ababa being special – or are we just off our heads due to altitude
Dervla Murphy and how both Lisa and Humphrey are big fans
How eco-travel is out of reach for your average family holiday
How travel changes with young children
Dog sledding to see the Northern Lights
Walking the Pacific Crest Trail – Mexico Border to US/Canada border
Struggling with ‘walking on the underclass’ in places like India
Trump, guns and healthcare in the USA
Doing the music trail in Mississippi
Johnny Cash songs on Nashville’s famous strip
10,000 people in 10,000 garages writing songs
How great art, culture and music springs from times of conflict
Hitching hiking through Thailand in 1974
A Whiter Shade of Pale wafting through the night skies over rice paddies