About Brian
Retired from Diplomatic Service (’65–’94) and Civil Service (’57–’65). Former member (resigned) of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission and various other more or less worthwhile bodies — see details in Wikipedia if sufficiently interested. Author of book What Diplomats Do — see extracts, reviews and order forms, etc., in the relevant section of this website.
Interests: international affairs, civil rights, and the Labour Party, warts and all. One of 52 ex-ambassadors who signed the open letter on the middle east to T Blair.
Cycles slowly in London traffic, listens addictively to classical music, obsessively writes letters to the newspapers (quite a few of which get published) and occasional articles (ditto).
Spends far too much time at the computer writing blog posts and responses to comments on them, commenting on other people’s blogs and sending out innumerable e-mails designed to assuage his morbid fear of being out of touch. Has a smartphone, a Kindle and a Facebook page, and Tweets. Joined the ranks of octogenarians in 2014.
Happily married husband of one, father of three, grandfather of two.