I’ve recently started a new project, ‘The Isle is Full of Noises’, a rolling collection of my field recordings from Vancouver Island and it’s surroundings – short, simple and evocative sounds that aurally capture the magic of this beautiful place I call home. Enjoy!
The last BBC programme I worked on before moving to Canada has finally been broadcast! It’s an episode of the long-running, award-winning Radio 4 series The Reunion, which reunites a group of people intimately involved in a moment of modern history – which in this edition is the opening of Tate Modern, Britain’s first national museum of modern art. I started researching and assembling the archive materials for this Reunion way back in 2014, so it was a real pleasure to hear some of those clips again in the finished programme. But my favourite moment came during one of the group discussions, when Tate Director Nick Serota recalled the Queen’s question to him on entering the Rothko Room for the first time: “Is this man into Zen?”
Hello and long time no see! Yes, it’s been a little quiet here for the last couple of years (!), mainly due to my moving to Canada in March 2015 and taking a little hiatus from journalism. However, I am over the moon to report that that hiatus is now more or less over – more details will be coming soon, but until then, here is my brand spanking new business card – available for commissions and collaborations, teaching and trades! And for your listening pleasure, here are my 2015 and 2016 entries into KCRW’s fabulous annual Race Race, a hugely fun 24-hour radio challenge.
Earlier this year I was incredibly excited to learn of a new magazine, The Cleaver Quarterly, to be dedicated entirely to Chinese food. Having devoured the beautiful first edition, I approached the editors Lily, Jonathan and Iain, with an idea that has been rolling around in a head for many years – an exploration of that great British institution, the Chinese takeaway. To my delight, Team Cleaver said yes! My finished article and photographs appear in the second issue, which has just been published.
You can read my article here, and buy the whole magazine plus past and future editions here.
Many, many thanks to my wonderful interviewees, Junkit Lau of JK’s in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, and Nayla Truong of Dan’s Island, Clapton, east London.
Tape-syncs are always fun, but they’re especially fun when a) they’re for one of the best radio shows on the planet, b) they’re in Cambridge, and c) they’re an interview with the cousin of Ali G. You can hear my recording of the incredibly interesting and eloquent Professor Simon Baron-Cohen in this wonderful edition of WNYC’s Radiolab from 20’19”.
About a year ago I was thrilled to be invited to work as China Consultant at the development stage of ‘Scared Rivers’, a major 3-part BBC2 series presented by Simon Reeve. The series was eventually commissioned, and all three episodes have recently been broadcast. The Yangtze episode, with which I was most involved, can be watched here, and the whole series here.
My BBC presenting debut, ‘China in Vogue’, which profiles the rise of high-end fashion in China, is now available to download (for free!) as an MP3 here.
Ahead of the broadcast of my presenting debut for BBC World Service, there was this lovely preview in the Guardian this Saturday.
The programme profiles the rise of high-end fashion in China and is my second China-focused documentary of this year!
‘China in Vogue’ will be broadcast 5 times during the course of Tuesday 11th March, and is also available to listen to here.
The past few months have seen me recording a flurry of tape syncs for American radio.
The most recent was in the Cambridgeshire town of Ely (home of the magnificent Ely Cathedral, pictured above) where I recorded an interview with Ravi Kanbur of Cornell University for Marketplace. You can hear the piece here.
Before that, I recorded an interview with City University professor of psychology Martin Conway for the show Philosophy Talk. It’s not available for free but you can download the episode on iTunes.
And way back in September I recorded a late-night interview with Matthew Engelke of the London School of Economics for the religion magazine show Interfaith Voices. You can hear that piece here.
It was with great pleasure that I sat down on Wednesday morning to listen to the broadcast of my first full-length documentary for BBC Radio 4, ‘Batting for the Middle Kingdom’. This was a programme very close to my heart – it took over a year to make, and included a trip back to my beloved China – and I’m hugely proud of the finished result. You can listen to the programme online here until Wednesday 27th November.