My Dad came from Yorkshire via Deptford, leaving school at 14. His father was a wool-grader, and his mother a cleaner at the Daily Mirror. Mum was born in Asylum Road, Peckham. Her mother was a school-dinner lady, and her Glaswegian father worked as a fish-porter at Billingsgate. They brought me into the world in a terraced house in Catford, naming me after my sister's favourite Beatle.
I was the first person in my extended family to go to University, studying social anthropology at SOAS. As an undergraduate I specialised in cultures of the Middle East, while my PhD was a study of Jamaican performance culture.
Then I worked in the House of Commons Library for 26 years. That's a world-leading political research service. Check out my CV page for more detail.
Currently, I work for your Liberal Democrat Group at the London Assembly, scrutinising Labour's Mayor. I had success with amendments to his Budget in January and February, helping our Party's position in South-West London over ULEZ expansion. The position I designed gained applause from angry voters at a People's Question Time, while the Mayor attracted heated protest.
Alongside my academic and political work, I've spent my life actively involved in the arts. I made two short films around the turn of the millennium. I've won prizes for my short fiction, and have published a small amount of poetry. These days I focus on film photography, using a collection of antiquated cameras, and music, which I record and mix at home (my first project was an album of songs about the refugee crisis of 2015). I am interested in world music and cinema.
I currently live in Rotherhithe, SE London, where I'm part of the Wild About the Dock group, which is a mixture of Facebook group and real life enthusiasts, photographing and caring for the waterfowl around this former dock area.
I was the first person in my extended family to go to University, studying social anthropology at SOAS. As an undergraduate I specialised in cultures of the Middle East, while my PhD was a study of Jamaican performance culture.
Then I worked in the House of Commons Library for 26 years. That's a world-leading political research service. Check out my CV page for more detail.
Currently, I work for your Liberal Democrat Group at the London Assembly, scrutinising Labour's Mayor. I had success with amendments to his Budget in January and February, helping our Party's position in South-West London over ULEZ expansion. The position I designed gained applause from angry voters at a People's Question Time, while the Mayor attracted heated protest.
Alongside my academic and political work, I've spent my life actively involved in the arts. I made two short films around the turn of the millennium. I've won prizes for my short fiction, and have published a small amount of poetry. These days I focus on film photography, using a collection of antiquated cameras, and music, which I record and mix at home (my first project was an album of songs about the refugee crisis of 2015). I am interested in world music and cinema.
I currently live in Rotherhithe, SE London, where I'm part of the Wild About the Dock group, which is a mixture of Facebook group and real life enthusiasts, photographing and caring for the waterfowl around this former dock area.
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