I was born, bred, studied, then studied some more, in London (or thereabouts). I didn’t have a full-time job until 2011, on completion of (most of) my postgraduate studies; and that first full-time job was in Beirut, Lebanon, at the AUB. Though I returned to London between 2013 and 2014, to complete yet one more, last round of postgraduate study, from 2014 to the present I have resided and worked in Dubai, at the American University in Dubai (AUD).
What all this means is that for over a decade, give or take, though a Londoner, growing up in a highly privileged setting, in a kind of mansion in Wimbledon, my working-life has been wholly in the Middle East. So that, the experience of being back in London, usually over the summer holidays, is a slightly estranged experience – though of course in some ways in continuity with my childhood and youth. For one thing I’ve a family of my own now; and a young, four-year-old daughter, the light of my life, who was also born in London in the summer of 2019. And what I think may prove an interesting or compelling way of demonstrating the different experience of London, for me as a kind of expat now, might be to describe that change through the lens of what I observed about my daughter’s experience. The highlights for her in London are or were the highlights for me, as I suppose they would be for any loving parent; but they also might be a nifty way of highlighting what London feels like when – if not wholly estranged – it is seen and lived anew.
The first image that occurs, recollecting now, is my daughter jumping in puddles, much like the ‘Peppa Pig’ character she loves so much. Yes, it wasn’t necessarily a clean-run experience, because my daughter, highly excited by the opportunity to actually jump in puddles, did have to then change her socks and shoes and some of her clothes – which can prove a task for any parent. However, one of her favorite cartoon characters aside, the image of her jumping in puddles with such newfound glee, did I suppose emphasize in a visceral way, how long it had been since I was truly, fully, in London. And even if it is a very ‘British’ thing to talk about the weather, it seems to me now like a kind of paradox, that the very thing that first occurs to me from a distance is the same thing landlocked Britishers also seem to be mildly obsessed with. Indeed, looking at and living London again, but through the eyes of one’s own child, makes one feel both more distant from one’s youth, and I suppose closer, from a different vantage point. It’s a very composite and layered kind of experience.
When asked to her face if she ‘liked’ London, my daughter answered in the same way that she had answered at a different, earlier time, about ‘Beirut;’ that she liked it because it was ‘so dirty.’ Living in so svelte a space as Dubai, where nearly every experience is bubbled-up, bubble-wrapped and built-up; where walking down an average street is far less cluttered and far less subject, on the face of things at least, to the impacts of contingency, meant that she noticed in both London and Beirut how the very different, messier topography was in a way, for her young take on things, salubrious. I enjoyed taking my daughter on planned visits to sites, such as the Aquarium, but the truer impression was not in specially targeted outings, but in the very press and pull and mess of daily, happenstance living. In fact, that just is the difference, as felt.
For us in Dubai, each outing as a small nuclear family is, and just has to be (due to the way things are built-up in Dubai, the geography and the resultant topography) choreographed in advance. This has benefits of course, and one should never underestimate how wonderfully suited to young families Dubai is. But what my daughter sensed, I must surmise, was the possibility of the adventures of the ‘everyday’ in London – which can seem to be somewhat foreclosed in Dubai. At least for us. And I must say that at a personal level, as soon as I land in London, catching a cab from the airport home, I feel a sense of relief at being ‘home.’ I have missed, you see, the ability to be surprised, even to be disappointed, in my day-to-day doings. There is something so health-giving about the sensed unpredictability of London life. And through the eyes of my own daughter, the eyes of a neophyte far from accustomed to London, I find myself understanding and experiencing once again the strange homeliness of London for me. Perhaps a little or a long-borne distance, in time and space, allows one to see all that one knew so well, anew, and thereby return the lived, the youth, back to its older life.
As for returning to London, after all the above, well, the more official exigencies of London life now seem to proscribe it for my young family and myself. Indeed, when searching for cognate jobs, as a lecturer in literature and/or creative writing, I notice more than ever now, how inimical life at a basic economic level would be in London. Even though I do not in any real sense work in the private sector in Dubai, where employees as much as employers can amass burly savings due to the slimness of taxation here, my job as an Associate Professor provides my family and I with a much better life, all-round. Though the net salaries for two similar jobs, in London as in Dubai, might be relatively close, in London, quite unlike Dubai, one is not blessed as well with all the benefits (of accommodation, health insurance and coverage and/or, say, financial coverage to a certain extent of one’s children’s education) one revels in here. So, to come full circle: yes, I have been away from London my whole working-life; and yes, I do miss it, the hurly-burly, the brouhaha of it; but in the most basic, real terms, as things stand being in Dubai, or at least, not in London at present, just works better for us.
Omar Sabbagh is a widely published poet, writer and critic. His latest books are, Cedar: Scenes from Lebanese Life (Northside House, 2023), and Y KNOTS: Short Fictions (Liquorice Fish Books, Oct. 2023). His next, forthcoming poetry collection, FOR ECHO will be published with Cinnamon Press in Spring 2024.
Writing my novel Hatham Hall (Northside House), I realised that characters who support themselves are generally more interesting than those who simply sit on inherited wealth. Yet the world of work, which dominates most real lives, is too rarely the focus of novels – and when it is, often features as a negative, for strivers and servants alike.
To Strive
Whilst the pursuit of money has won a thumbs up from some women writers of block/bonkbusters such as Shirley Conran, Jackie Collins and Julie Burchill, who link it to girl power, big beast male ‘literary’ writers seem less sure – if Marin Amis’ Money, Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho and Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities are anything to go by. Amis’ John Self and Ellis’ Patrick Bateman both sell their shrivelled souls to a consumerist devil and while Wolfe brings a plague on every house, it is the Wasp ‘Master of the Universe’ bond trader, Sherman McCoy whose hubristic arrogance sets a match to the eponymous bonfire. The love of money, it seems, is the root of all evil. Or sometimes simply personal pain. In Hanya Yanagihara’s wildly successful A Little Life (recently dramatized in the West End, starring James Norton) fame and fortune effortlessly visit her characters only to be accompanied by misery and drug abuse – like Jacqueline Susann’s three heroines in Valley of the Dolls decades earlier.
To Serve
If striving is bad, what then of its opposite: serving others? The character of Wilkie Collins’ benign principal narrator in The Moonstone, Gabriel Betteredge – a kind of head butler – is given a sinister twist by Kazuo Ishiguro in The Remains of the Day, where Stevens becomes an unwitting accomplice to the Nazi leanings of his boss, Lord Darlington, who throws out maids simply for being Jewish. Ishiguro repeats this blindly-loyal-servant-as-facilitator-of-evil theme in Never Let Me Go, where genetic clone Kathy H coaches other clones to meekly accept the harvesting of their internal organs. In his latest, Klara and the Sun, the robot Klara’s years of unwavering loyalty are rewarded with a fate similar to Boxer’s in Orwell’s Animal Farm: she is dumped in a scrapyard. In Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead (Barack Obama’s favourite novel), her apparently conscionable narrator Reverend Ames serves his local community only by blinding himself to the racism that drove the African-American community out of town and allowing his jealousy of a troubled young man to taint his pastoral duties. A rare exception is Anne Tyler, who combines melancholy with compassion in Saint Maybe. ‘Clutter Counsellor’, Rita DiCarlo appears towards the end, making a living by helping old people discard objects which have become the burdensome detritus of accumulating years, thus bringing healing. Rita is both entrepreneur and kind servant of her community.
To create
Perhaps unsurprisingly, writers often prefer to concentrate on creative jobs. Dickens’ most autobiographical novel, David Copperfield, charts his journey from child factory worker to solicitor’s clerk to successful novelist – but his hideous period as an exploited boy in a bottle factory is far more vivid than the blandly-depicted writing life. Both Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and Virginia’s Woolf’s To the Lighthouse feature painters prominently, but it is unclear if they do it for money and one suspects that Mrs Woolf would have thought it rather vulgar if they did. My favourite novel about creative work – perhaps about any job at all – is Muriel Spark’s A Far Cry From Kensington, which satirises London’s post-war publishing industry. Her heroine, Mrs Hawkins, is employed because she is so fat that aspiring writers feel too guilty to abuse her when she tells them they won’t be published. She demonstrates her integrity, risking her job, by repeatedly telling an intellectual pseud of a writer that he is no more than a ‘pisseur de copie’. If only work was always such fun.
Tim Robinson’s latest novel is Hatham Hall: northsidehouse.com
Lord Ashcroft’s book, ‘In The Shadows’ shines a light on the extraordinary world of the Intelligence Corps, writes Stephen James
Lord Ashcroft’s latest book rightly focuses on “the extraordinary men and women of the Intelligence Corps” whose skills and knowledge help inform Commanders where the enemy is, what they are doing, and what they are capable of. Now, at this point, I’d like to declare an interest – I served in the Intelligence Corps throughout the 2000s (deploying on operations to Afghanistan twice). As with any member of the Corps, I’m fiercely proud of my Corps and its history.
The Intelligence Corps is one of the youngest units in the British Army; it was formally constituted with the consent of King George V on 15 July 1940, with the formation being notified on 19 July 1940 in Army Order 112. The Intelligence Corps played a vital role in World War 2 with its members working for the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the founding of the Special Air Service (SAS), and contributing to deciphering the enigma code. Today, the Corps is one of the smallest Corps in the British Army with approximately 1850 serving Officers and soldiers. However, what the Corps lacks in size, it more than makes up for in impact and influence.
Unlike other parts of the military which are known for their aggression (Parachute Regiment), equipment (Royal Tank Regiment / Army Air Corps) or drill on parade (Guards) – the Intelligence Corps does not fit into any particular category. The ‘textbook answer’ is it analyses large amounts of data, to produce accurate and timely intelligence that has an impact on the theatre of operations.
Lord Ashcroft’s book goes further and gives us a fascinating insight into the history of intelligence leading to the establishment of the Intelligence Corps and most importantly, brings the exploits of individual Intelligence Corps soldiers to life!
The Corps itself brings together a wide range of people; some unconventional but all highly skilled intelligence operatives who were able to use their energies in various trades and specialisms that can be brought to bear on the enemy. During my time in the Corps, I worked alongside the Security Service (MI5), Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), as well as foreign intelligence services – and the ability to be flexible and resilient to unpredictable situations was a key trait amongst Corps soldiers and officers.
Some of the stories shared by Lord Ashcroft are not ones I had heard before… not because of my own ignorance of Corps history but because we take its role seriously ‘to protect the Military and its secrets’ – after all, loose lips sink ships! The only times I’ve heard of some of these stories of ‘daring do’ are over hushed tones in the quietness of night over a pint in the mess.
“There is a reason that the Intelligence Corps is the British Army’s most secretive unit and not as well known as SOE, MI5, MI6 or GCHQ… it’s because we prefer to operate in the shadows!”
Stephen James
That is not to say that we are not deeply proud of our heroic soldiers who have helped tackle matters of security, terrorism and war, in every conflict since the Second World War but we take seriously, our dedication to service and secrecy. Sadly (or not), it will always be the case that many of the most valiant and brave members of the Intelligence Corps will never have their stories told due to the clandestine nature of their work. That said, this book is packed full of heroic deeds which fill me with pride, and wanting more!
The story of Paddy Leigh Fermor who was a natural recruit to our ranks is one of particular excitement that was also made into a movie starring Dirk Boregare. Paddy was rebellious, free-spirited sort and found himself gathering intelligence in Nazi-occupied Crete, disguised as a shepherd. as well as training and organising the local resistance fighters. As if that wasn’t dangerous enough, Paddy engineered an ambitious plan: to kidnap a German general and dispatch him to British Army headquarters in Cairo. For his ‘courage and audacity’ in planning and executing the high-stakes mission, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
The Corps is very good at shaping itself to the current threat, the Cold War and The Troubles in Northern Ireland placed huge demands on the Intelligence Corps and as I joined it was starting to pivot towards Afghanistan. Although NI was a thousand miles away, the lessons we learnt during The Troubles enabled us to draw on the experience of senior soldiers who were used to asymmetric warfare.
My one critique is not the author’s fault, but more a consequence of writing about such a secretive organisation – because it is inevitable that some extraordinary men and women are missing from this account. Lord Ashcroft could have included them but not without being locked up in the Tower of London for sharing state secrets. For example, The ‘Special Reconnaissance Unit’, also known as the “The Det” was a part of the Corps. It involved plainclothes operations in Northern Ireland from the 1970s onwards where numerous members of the Corps lost their lives. I know several stories about individuals, who, in my opinion, would deserve to be included in this book.
Overall, In the Shadows will give you an explanation of how the Intelligence Corps recruits the best and the brightest. It is not only for those with linguistic and intelligence skills but also for rogues, rascals and raconteurs – those with the ability to think outside the box. During my intake, we had such a broad range of people who brought different skills to the Corps – and whatever you think an Operator of Military Intelligence is… it isn’t… there is no type. But in my view there are similar employability traits such as attention to detail, a passion for problem solving, excellent communication skills and adaptability to constantly evolving situations. In a world where transferable skills provide you with the best opportunities for success, I am thankful to the Intelligence Corps jobs who have shaped my skill set and Finito who are now also helping me refine further into the corporate world!
Short of joining yourself, if you want to get an idea of what the extraordinary men and women of the Intelligence Corps really do, this is an enjoyable read that will leave you wanting more.
Stephen James is a former member of the Intelligence Corps and one of our Finito’s Business Mentors.
In the Shadows: The extraordinary men and women of the Intelligence Corps is published by Biteback priced £25
London is full of fine views; the view from Primrose Hill looking back over the river; the view from the South Bank, where church spires still vie with skyscrapers. But to get the really good views – the ones which can inspire you to the next thing – perhaps you need to go to the skyscrapers themselves. I am standing in one of the top floors of Wardian in a beautiful apartment with triple aspect views.
It is an image of the enormity of London. As Peter Ackroyd has pointed out, London isn’t always a beautiful city – but it is a grand one, meaning it can be large enough to accommodate opposites. It can be ugly and beautiful; consoling and abrasive; rapid and calm; strange and familiar. It can astonish you just when you thought you were coming to understand it. From up here, you can see the unexpected twists and turns of the river (and I thought I was indecisive) from one side; the marshlands which lead toward the Thames Barrier on the other; and, finally, the hills of Kent rolling down towards the Channel.
It’s a view you might want to wake up to everyday. Fortunately, that’s possible. Wardian is the work of Ecoworld Ballymore, and it’s a reminder of the possibility of excellent design and imagination to create inspiring living spaces. Eloise Solari, head of sales at Wardian, tells me: “The vision behind Wardian is to create a tranquil haven in the heart of the city – this ethos appeals to buyers of all demographics and walks of life. From students and recent graduates making the first move away from home, to finance professionals and corporates based in Canary Wharf, and business travellers seeking a pied-à-terre, Wardian offers everyone a serene escape from the hustle-and-bustle of life in the capital, and somewhere really special to call home.”
Canary Wharf itself has its undeniable appeal. In a way, it represented the Manhattanisation of this part of London, and for me, having always loved New York, that’s no bad thing. Emerging out of the Jubilee Line to One Canada Square, I am struck, as so often, by its cleanliness, and by a feeling of safety. “Canary Wharf is actually one of the safest neighbourhoods in London in terms of crime rate,” Solari says. “Wardian residents and locals have often commented on how safe they feel walking around the area, especially at night – and safety is certainly an important factor we all consider when buying a new home.” When I speak to one of the residents, a UHNW who moved here from Dubai, he explains why he loves the area: “I can wear my Rolex here!”
Of course, to say a place is safe is not to say it’s lifeless – and a distinctive community has grown up around Wardian too. That’s true both within the building and without. Walking the premises, I see a state-of-the-art gym inside Wardian which I imagine must be a good place to network, and a cinema – also within the building – which I’m also told is the beginning of many a friendship. As is widely known, many of the major banks have their offices here – the skyline is a sort of ‘Who’s Who’ of the financial industry, with Citi, HSBC and Lloyd’s all prominent.
It’s also an ideal location for a young student to live. “Wardian is exceptionally well-connected, with a plethora of leading education establishments within easy reach, including 75 Ofsted-rated outstanding institutions within three miles,” explains Solari. “London has 119 major universities and higher education establishments, with King’s College London Guy’s Campus just a nine-minute tube trip away, London School of Commerce accessible in ten minutes, University of Greenwich in 11 minutes, South Bank and Queen Mary both in 17 minutes, UCL in 23 minutes and LSE in 24 minutes.”
That makes it especially handy for young people, and Wardian also has bookable meetings rooms for those in need of some quiet time for study. But once you’ve done your work, there’s plenty to do here too. Solari continues: “Canary Wharf’s connectivity makes it easy to get to whichever educational establishment you choose, as well as having its own identity as a vibrant, exciting neighbourhood for the perfect student lifestyle.”
I’ve always loved the approach to Canary Wharf on the DLR line, and now you can also enjoy the approach on the fabulously state-of-the-art Elizabeth Line too. Arriving from the north-west approach, the bother and complexity of the city seems to recede a little. That complicated old London with its marvellous network of streets according to a Roman plan becomes something altogether different: a vision of the future told in height, squared off green spaces, and desirable malls. As you leave the old part of the city, the spire of the old Hawksmoor church, St Anne’s Limehouse seems to wave the past goodbye, and welcome you to your future.
But that’s not your only option in terms of getting around. Solari gives a good description of the sheer range of transport options: “We’re seeing many buyers from West and South West London as a result, attracted by easy access to the Jubilee Line (six minutes to London Bridge), as well as the DLR (25 minutes to City Airport), and the arrival of the Elizabeth Line has opened more doors, with Liverpool Street accessible in ten minutes, Paddington in 20 minutes and Heathrow in an hour. And you can even eliminate traffic and busy trains by getting the Uber by Thames Clipper, with regular boats departing from Canary Wharf Pier and offering a serene river cruise experience.”
Curious to know more about that, I take the Uber by Thames Clipper boat from Canary Wharf back towards the City. I remember meeting once a Baker & McKenzie partner, who lived in Canary Wharf but worked in Blackfriars, and who was plainly delighted by his early morning commute, seeming to glow with good cheer at the fundamental choice he had made: to live in Canary Wharf and to work upriver.
As the boat pulls out I recall him with a degree of envy. I note the sun large in the sky, and its glorious sparkle on the water. I photograph it and make a mental note to sketch it later.
The surprise is how swiftly the boat rounds the first corner towards Wapping, and then, how quickly you can be in so many premium locations: London Bridge, Blackfriars, Westminster and beyond. The resident of Wardian could enjoy a night out at the theatre bookended by boat rides.
This makes me curious about Uber by Thames Clipper, the company which runs the boats. I speak to Sean Collins, the CEO and co-founder of the company, who recalls its founding to me: “The basis of establishing Uber by Thames Clipper in 1999 was predominantly to provide a link between the north and the south of the river, spanning the west end to Canary Wharf with the redevelopment of Docklands, south and east London districts, due to the limited public transport infrastructure in place at the time.”
Interestingly, the amount of footfall related to commuting turns out to be less than I might have expected. Collins explains: “The business operates seven days a week, therefore leisure and tourism form a greater proportion of our operating period versus commuting. Post-pandemic commuting represents around 30 per cent of our overall footfall.”
To whizz round the bends of the Thames from Canary Wharf to central London is also to connect with an important part of London’s history. “The river played a significant part in establishing London and through the centuries it hasn’t been uncommon for the river to peak and dip its uses as evolution of other transport modes and accessibility has developed,” explains Collins. So what is the current trendline in relation to that? “I believe that London is currently going through another significant change in that evolution and that the river will play more of a part in the future for both passenger and light freight logistics.”
Of course, this has all been an astonishingly quick success story, and part of the pleasure of living at Wardian is to be harnessed to an energy of rapid creativity and success. I speak with Baron Levene of Portsoken, who among many other important roles – in government (as an advisor to Michael Heseltine, and to Prime Minister John Major) and business (as chairman of Lloyd’s of London) – was chief executive of Canary Wharf Ltd.: “I very much had a front row seat on the development of Canary Wharf,” he tells me. “It was a very important development. When I went there, there were about 5,000 people working there, when I left there were about 10,000 people there; today there are 120,000.”
That’s a rapid expansion indeed. So why are people moving there in such droves? Levene explains: “People like living there as it’s a good area. It’s only ten minutes on the DLR into the City. The retail side of Canary Wharf was just put in as a convenience and has now become a huge part of the value of the development, whereby the rents in some areas are more expensive for shops than for office space.”
So how did Levene transform the area? “I went round to see the people who ran the businesses there, whether they were in an office or retail environment. I said to them: ‘What’s wrong with this place? Why does everyone hate it?’ They said: ‘It’s because you can’t get here. The transport links don’t work. Docklands Light Railway doesn’t work; the Limehouse link tunnel isn’t open, and there’s nowhere for people to go and do their shopping, and it’s unreliable’.”
But when Levene looked into the matter, he found that actually things were rather better than people were saying. “I went back to look at it,” he continues. “By then, we’d managed to fix the DLR; the Jubilee line was getting on course; and the shops were starting to fill up. I went back to the people who’d been complaining about the transport links, and I said: ‘When did you last go on a train?’”
Often, of course, they hadn’t. It’s an image of how rapidly a city can change – and of how things in London are often better than we might imagine.
What then became important was to communicate the real situation for people who were going there – or thinking of going there. Levene recalls: “So I phoned up the chairmen of large companies and they’d say: “Where is Canary Wharf?” Eventually, I persuaded them. When they arrived, the same thing happened with each person: they’d turn up about half an hour early. I’d say: ‘You’re nice and early’. And they’d reply: “My secretary told me it would take an hour and a half, and actually it took 25 minutes.”
This in turn led to another realisation: “We realised one of the keys to getting people in there was to get to the secretaries. We then took out advertising space on the side of the tube tunnels, saying: ‘How long will it take for you to get from here to Canary Wharf? How many clothing shops are there? How many restaurants? If you know the answer, fill out this card and if you get it right we’ll give you a voucher’. That was a terrific success.”
Things were beginning to come good. Then Levene had another idea: “We realised that if people wanted to get down there, it would be by taxi. So we had a huge party for all the taxi drivers. And now, whenever people wanted to go there, the taxi drivers would say: “Oh, Canary Wharf is amazing!”
It was an astonishing turnaround. Collins recalls the period well – it was an inspiration to him. “Canary Wharf played a significant part as a proof of concept of a derelict brown field site when it came to building Uber by Thames Clipper. Canary Wharf not only provides direct custom to and from the Wharf, but as a result of the residential property demand and the need for people to live within a relatively close proximity of Canary Wharf, there is an indirect benefit as well. I would therefore estimate that Canary Wharf represents around 15 per cent of our custom.”
That’s a significant number when you think of all the other landmarks at which the boats stop. So how does Collins think Canary Wharf is changing as a destination, and a place of work? “From a workplace perspective, I feel that Canary Wharf has pretty much topped out now, but it is still significantly growing from a residential perspective,” Collins explains. “We therefore continue to see increased footfall and, in fact, a growing demand for leisure at the weekends.”
All this only increases the desirability of Wardian as a residential option. As I tour round, I note with envy the marvellous playground, which I imagine would have been absolutely indispensable for young families during lockdown.
Solari explains: “Wardian is home to many families, and our provision of amenities caters for children, students, and professionals – the podium garden offers a safe and secure play area for little ones, and Wardian is pet-friendly too. The jewel in the crown is The Observatory, the 53rd flood sky lounge – residents can use this to work, socialise, entertain and relax, with panoramic views of London as their backdrop. Collectively known as ‘The Wardian Club’, the amenities are exclusive to residents and their guests.”
Having been here I can testify to the desirability of The Observatory; it must be one of the finest rooms in London, with panoramic and inspiring views of the city, a place as suited to creativity as it is to relaxation. Many will also loe building’s green aesthetic, which is beautifully realised both in the lobby areas, and in the rooms. I note with delight that somebody has managed to source second-hand books with green spines for the show apartments. Solari tells me: “The inspiration behind Wardian is biophilia, and a distinct ethos of bringing the ‘outside-in’ to incorporate nature into living spaces. From the name Wardian, which takes inspiration from Dr Nathaniel Bagshaw who first transported exotic flora across the globe in an innovative ‘Wardian case’, the scheme has been designed to create a tranquil, restorative space where you can escape the urban density of London. Over 100 species of plants, flowers and trees are on display in the various communal spaces, as well as large plant enclosures in the Lobby and Observatory; Wardian responds to the increasingly-recognised mental and physical benefits of incorporating greenery into our homes.”
Above all, Wardian is a place which is both a home to many, and an architectural masterpiece: from the cathedral-like airiness of the lobbies, to the balconies with their panoramic views, and the attention to design detail throughout, by Amos & Amos, there is an essentially horticultural beauty wherever you turn. Finally, there can be few more desirable pools than the one on the ground floor, where I have to restrain myself from taking a dip myself.
And Canary Wharf itself is an astonishing success story, which opens up onto an important chapter in our recent history. But it is also clearly part of our future too – and the ideal place in which to create the next chapter of your own story.
I’ve just had the pleasure of meeting the Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, when he generously made time to attend a breakfast with me and a few dozen friends and colleagues, to celebrate the impending publication of my book The Indian Century. He is a very personable man: he laughs easily – often at himself – and has a winning combination of seriousness and relaxed friendliness that few politicians manage. He also combines a background as a British man of mixed heritage (his father is English, his mother comes from Sierra Leone), a military career, experience as a business owner and in local government. Even more unusually, he survived being appointed as Foreign Secretary by Liz Truss and remains in that role today.
The question of whether we can achieve a trade deal with India is of course on the top of people’s minds. Does Cleverly think it’s achievable?
“We have been making fantastic ground,” he said. “The EU, for example, have been trying to negotiate a trade deal with India since 2007. I believe we’ve made more progress since our departure from the European Union than I think a lot of our critics would have expected.”
Admitting that negotiations are likely to last some time further, he is quick to put any policy disagreements into context. “In various ways we have disagreements on policy issues with all our international partners. When I go over to Washington, part of the conversation I have with the US is where we have disagreements on their policy positions.”
Cleverly is a consensus politician, skilled at listening to what the other side has to say and looking to reach common ground, rather than trying to bulldoze arguments through. Asked whether Britain should be talking to China, when its people are accused of spying, he replies that it’s important to keep diplomatic channels open, and to look for reasonable people with whom to negotiate.
Equally, from Britain’s self-interest, it is crucially important to develop closer relationships with countries such as India that will be increasingly influential in the future. We should not rely on “the comfort blanket of our nearest neighbours,” says Cleverly.
The potential rewards of a trade deal between Britain and India, which include an estimated 300,000 new jobs in the UK and as many as a million in India, are among the benefits that he sees from this new focus on trade outside the European Union. Although I am a confirmed Europhile and opposed Brexit, I would love to see these advantages realised, especially relating to India.
If Indian politicians – and indeed its public – are reluctant to agree to a trade deal with Britain on account of historic grievances, it would be good for them to see more images of James Cleverly and Rishi Sunak together: one of Indian heritage and the other with African roots.
Whatever Home Secretary Suella Braverman might spout about the failure of multiculturalism, the optics of Sunak and Cleverly as the main negotiating force for Britain in the world are a powerful reminder of progress.
Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament. His latest book, The Indian Century, will be published in the Autumn.
The artist and photographer Paul Joyce considers the death of an iconic tree
Hadrian’s Wall started construction about AD 122 and took nearly a decade to complete. It was intended to “keep the barbarians at bay” but it certainly failed to do so a couple of nights ago when the most famous tree of this legendary boundary was hacked down.
At first a 16 year old was suspected, but currently the opinion has grown that the perpetrator was an older professional with a heavy professional chainsaw. This act of wanton destruction has provoked intense reactions not just in the UK but worldwide as at least a million foreign visitors descended on the site every year. Adult locals have been reduced to tears and police have urged people to stay away from the site, even those who genuinely just want to honour the memory of what had become for many an icon of regeneration of the natural world in the force of relentless technological advances.
The Roman treatment of prisoners does not make for pleasant reading. Any near at hand to The Coliseum would have been tossed into the arena willy-nilly, whist others in foreign climes would have been subject to beatings, amputations, and numerous other indignities up to and including Crucifixion. Many others above and beyond Jesus Christ were accorded that privilege.
Sycamore Gap, where the tree dominated the landscape for many centuries, has overnight been stripped of both its tangible and intangible magic. It formed a natural end point for many travellers who had just come to see it, and others who passed by as they walked the Wall, stopping to gaze at it in wonder.
The tree has been in my own consciousness for over half a century, and I remember well visiting it one winter over 40 years ago with the photographer and artist, Chris Wainwright. We were then experimenting with photographic images of ritual fires in the landscape. Around dusk we lit flares which we carried around and across the tree, having set up a large field camera on a tripod to take time exposures. We were in our own way paying homage to ancestors who celebrated key events in their calendar with the use of fire in its various forms.
We were of course very careful not to do any damage, or leave traces of our presence there. Whoever is responsible for this senseless act deserves, in my opinion at least, to be accorded some of the delights awaiting Roman prisoners of war. At the very least I would force them to walk the length of the wall (without shoes) picking up any litter they might find on the way.
If I had the talent of say, a David Nash, I would suggest erecting a piece of sculpture in place of the fallen warrior. If initiated quickly, a mound could be cast from the remains of the felled icon and re-erected there as a permanent reminder of one of the most beautiful and well-loved trees in not just the British Isles, but world-wide as well.
The fact that the totemic Gap Sycamore was felled is probably, at least in part, due to its being used by Kevin Costner in his “Robin Hood” epic and therefore its unavoidable and graphic location received world-wide exposure. As it happens, the painting which accompanies this piece was done some time before this tragic event occurred, as it is a location I always returned to when going anywhere close to the Scottish borders.
On this particular visit, in the constructed stone circle near the base of the tree, which I took to be the remains of on old sheep pen, was a small tree growing – an almost exact replica of its bigger sister. If only that sapling had been taken care of, it would provide a perfect substitute for its now decapitated parent.
Great British artists such as Paul Nash and Eric Ravilious would talk openly about “the spirit of a place” which would draw them to, and then in the case of Nash, in one sense through the object to a world beyond – part-mythical, part spiritual. This led them to unique and unforgettable depictions of landscapes part real but almost wholly imagined.
As some folks would tackle the Munroe Hills or run up as many mountains as possible in 24 hours, so I would seek out these magical places in order to try and follow Nash and his circle towards my own personal Arcadia. This is in part the reason for my series of paintings of “Great British Landscapes” of which this marks the first; to share these crucially important physical touchstones and, so to speak, roll the boulder back from the cave entrance, allowing light in from a more peaceful, better organised and artistically constructed world.
For India-watchers, the country’s remarkable digitisation in recent years is one of the wonders of the 21st century, massively reducing corruption, increasing tax revenues, boosting financial inclusion, and turbo-charging the national economy. Now, the prospect that Africa will copy India’s lead and reap the benefits for itself is becoming a reality. A series of initiatives is rolling out across the continent, harnessing the energy that India generated. Here are two of them:
Adopting digital public infrastructure (DPI)
Countries such as Nigeria, with its high population and relatively low financial inclusion, are tailor-made for DPI. Bill Gates is among the proponents. “Digitising things reduces overheads massively and it does it in a pro-equity way,” he said on a recent visit to Nigeria. “The ideal is for a woman to have her own savings account,” he said, which means less money goes on alcohol and more on school fees. Gates praised the Indian example, where money no longer leaks out of the benefit system. Previously, “the cash would show up and the big man in the village would get his piece. Now he can’t get that because it’s going on to her phone directly.” The Aadhaar digital identification system is also ideal for sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 470 million people have no official ID. Ghana’s vice-president Mahamadu Bawumia is among the biggest supporters: he points out that governments can’t serve their people if they don’t know who they are. Even though some argue that authoritarian governments could abuse the system, Bill Gates counters that “a competent government is better than an incompetent one,” and knowing who your citizens are is an important step towards giving them healthcare, education and the right to vote.
An Indian African trade partnership would be transformative
Welcoming the African Union into the G20 – to create a future G21 – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened up the prospect of far closer economic ties between his country and African nations. While India currently accounts for just 2.8 per cent of global trade and Africa for 3 per cent (compared with China at 14 per cent and the US at 8 per cent), trade between the pair has risen exponentially in recent years and could soar over the coming decades. “India and Africa, with their increasing incomes and population trends, could be significant markets,” said Vera Songwe at the Brookings Institute. “They could supply the world with both intermediary and finished products in EV cars, green housing, green fertiliser, renewable energy and digital infrastructure,” she said. “Africa can support India’s transition to a green economy” leading to economic benefits worth $20 trillion between now and 2040, she believes. Narendra Modi’s proposed infrastructure deal, offering African nations an alternative to the more onerous conditions that China attaches to development, is another prime example of a mutually beneficial partnership. Roads, railways, data and energy pipelines could lift many millions of Africans out of poverty and deliver increased growth and prosperity in both India and Africa.
Dinesh Dhamija founded, built and sold online travel agency ebookers, before serving as a Member of the European Parliament. His latest book, The Indian Century, will be published in the Autumn.
Christopher Jackson examines the rise and stall of the 2021 US Open champion, and asks what we can learn from her in our own careers
Emma Raducanu sits in a luxury hotel, immediately more interesting than the backdrop behind her. Interior designers will have specific words for the subtle gradations of brown, beige and mauve which I see, conveying low-key opulence. The gold struts of a light disappear out of shot. Behind her, half-lost in the night, are the ghosts of other buildings, suggesting Raducanu is in some upper floor suite: this feels appropriate since she has been in the stratosphere of sporting stars for the last 14 or so months.
Raducanu is perched on the sofa, professionally lit. She is dressed in what looks like a purple ballgown and which is probably Dior – one of her sponsors. The spangly crucifix which she wears for all her matches – including her 2021 US Open final victory – disappears in the glitter of her dress. It is as if she has found herself by accident in the interviewee’s chair and decided to allot some brief time before heading out for the night.
Recalling the last helter-skelter year, she says: “I’ve had a lot of new things that have been exciting. It’s great to learn from different industries and see new things, and I can apply it into every aspect of my life really, even my tennis. So I think that’s been really eye-opening.”
To recap for those who may have missed what has been without exaggeration the most astonishing fairytale in all sport, Emma Raducanu began 2020 as a little known tennis player. The armchair fan might easily have pigeon-holed her as the latest in a long run of British tennis players who ‘don’t quite make it’. It would have been easy to imagine without any disrespect intended to any of these players that here was another Johanna Konta, Elena Baltacha, or Heather Watson – one of those British hopes, who shine briefly then move off into commentating, coaching, management, or agenting.
It didn’t work out like that. Instead, Raducanu had a promising run at Wimbledon in 2021. At that time, she was ranked outside the Top 300, and entered the tournament as a wild card. She charmed everyone on her way to the fourth round. That match was disappointing at the time, and saw her lose to Ajla Tomlianoviç after experiencing breathing difficulties.
But in retrospect it was formative: Raducanu subsequently entered the US Open Championships and had to win three qualifying matches to be able to enter the main draw.
What happened next would be deemed unlikely if submitted as a Hollywood script. Raducanu went on to beat a string of top players: Stefanie Vögele, Zhang Shuai, Sara Sorribes Tormo, Shelby Rogers, Belinda Bencic, Maria Sakkari and Leylah Fernandez to win the tournament. More than this she did so without dropping a set. On her victory, she received public congratulations from the late Queen Elizabeth II, who called it: “a remarkable achievement at such a young age…testament to your hard work and dedication”.
These developments have let to pressure, of course, but Raducanu herself has been philosophical about that. “I’m a Slam champion, so no one’s going to take that away from me,” she has said. “If anything, the pressure is on those who haven’t done that.”
In short, this sort of thing doesn’t happen; to Raducanu it did.
School’s out
Raducanu’s victory was astonishing in itself: it also revealed somebody who revealed herself as well-spoken, educated, charming and humorous. She has sometimes been deemed, as we shall see, a poster-girl for social mobility or diversity in sport. Interestingly she has a grammar school background having attended Newstead Wood School in Orpington, which though it celebrates her on its website does so in a more understated way than other schools might.
In fact, for much of her ascent to superstardom, Raducanu was multi-tasking her burgeoning tennis career with A Levels, but now things have shifted a bit. Raducanu continues, telling Harper’s Bazaar: “Even though I’ve finished my A Levels now, I like to keep my brain quite active. Bath time is also when I watch TV or Netflix– I find I don’t get much spare time to do that otherwise. People always ask what I’m watching but it’s usually quite obscure.”
And what is she watching and reading? “Right now I’m really into these different Chinese shows because I’m trying to improve my Mandarin! As for books, I recently finished The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma which is about this lawyer searching for the meaning of life. I like non-fiction books best. I also like talking to my friends – not so much on the phone, but I’m a big texter.”
It’s this which sets Raducanu apart: her maturity and willingness to learn. As you consider the person on the hotel sofa, you realise how she is already an old head on young shoulders, used to being the object of attention and fascination; the impression is of somebody who has very swiftly reconciled herself to fame, as if her astonishing story was what she expected to happen long ago. She came prepared.
So what is it like when the limelight comes for you? When I speak to Chris Eaton, the former World No.317, who reached the second round of Wimbledon in 2008, he compares his own experiences as a tennis player to what Raducanu is experiencing: “I would say that my experience would be extremely different to a lot of other peoples’: it’s rare to have an experience with the press which is only positive. For me, there was no expectation. Nobody got my phone number, social media wasn’t what it was. Accessibility-wise, you didn’t have Instagram where you could message somebody or post something. Emma has outrageous expectation.”
I remember once talking to a tennis coach at Reed’s tennis school, which the former British No.1 Tim Henman – and Eaton – had attended. He told me that many students had been as talented as Henman but Henman had been the only person who, if you told him to hit a ball against a wall for 10 hours, would follow the order unquestioningly.
The story, apocryphal or not, seems to open up onto the question of what success means in sport, and how much should be sacrificed in order to obtain it. Furthermore, success in sport has its relationship to success in other disciplines, and young people already wish to find out how they can emulate her achievements in their own lives.
“I think the confidence comes from just inner belief,” Raducanu has told Vogue. “My mum comes from a Chinese background, they have very good self-belief. It’s not necessarily about telling everyone how good you are, but it’s about believing it within yourself. I really respect that about the culture.”
2M5W3PM Emma Raducanu, MBE, British tennis player, close up of face, smiling, in evening dress,
But Raducanu’s story is already a layered one as much to do with setback as it is to do with that astonishing victory. 2022 was the year she began to experience reversal as she adjusted to joining the main tour: the latest example of this was her defeat to American teenager Coco Gauff in straight sets in the second round of the 2023 Australian Open.
Raducanu has been both a meteoric success story and someone who has increasingly had to wrestle publicly with disappointment. In the merciless world of stratospheric celebrity, disappointment will mean criticism, most of it unfair. Press intrusion is now an aspect of her life; perhaps it’s even its defining note – along with her newly found wealth which itself cannot come without its own measure of difficulty.
Raducanu admits this publicly, telling Sheer Luxe: “Professionally speaking, I’m very proud of my resilience this year. I’ve faced quite a bit of adversity and I’ve had to keep getting back up a lot. So much stuff is said about me that isn’t true, but I try not to let it affect me. The past year has meant getting used to that side of things – the publicity and hearing all these things I never even knew about myself! The attention on the tour is so intense.”
Behind the beauty and the smile and the Raducanu we think we know there is someone far more complex, and indeed perhaps less obviously enviable than the one we had her down for.
Numbers Girl
By their endorsements shall ye know them. Raducanu has had the most monied and famous brands beating their way to her door, and this has given her, in addition to instant financial security, a host of commitments.
Raducanu explains in that plush hotel room: “I’ve been lucky enough to work with Dior and Maria Grazia Churi who I’ve met a few times and she’s so nice. I also like that she’s all about feeling comfortable and having casual stuff in your wardrobe that you can wear day to day. Nike is probably another one because I’m always in tennis clothes and don’t go out very often! That said, I think they’re the masters at making the sporty stuff just look a bit cooler. I’m also into quite masculine pieces – you’ll often find me wearing a men’s polo and tennis shorts.”
Eaton explains how it goes for the likes of Raducanu: “It all depends on what contracts she has with these brands. Is it to wear a watch at the end of everything and do one corporate day a year? If so, it shouldn’t be a problem. If it’s a question of five different sponsorships requiring ten days a year, suddenly you’re looking at 50 days a year which then means you don’t get any time off and you’re always working.”
For Raducanu, the sponsorship questions feel different; for this article, we spoke to Christopher Helliar, her agent, who was willing to cooperate on the basis that our magazine was interested in Emma’s substance.
And there’s a lot of that. In general, her endorsements feel thought-through. Raducanu is able to talk articulately about the sponsors she’s signed up with. Consider this excerpt, for instance, this dropped-in reference from an interview with Harper’s Bazaar: “I wake up a lot during the night and my hydration always takes a hit overnight – I’m an athlete, so I need to keep on top of that to perform properly during the day. You’ll always find a big bottle of Evian next to my bed, so the first thing I do is normally have a big glug of water!”
Likewise, her commitment to BA chimes with the jet-setting lifestyle of an international tennis player, and her physical beauty makes her a natural fit for Tiffany’s jewellery and Dior.
But the same brands would be a good fit for many other tennis player on the circuit. As one looks through the long list of her endorsements, one leaps out as somehow being more specific to Raducanu and that is her deal with HSBC to work on financial literacy, about which she has said: “To partner with HSBC is so natural for me having grown up playing in the HSBC Road to Wimbledon and having been a customer for many years. If I wasn’t a tennis player, I would definitely want to work in finance so I’m excited to learn more about the industry in the years to come.”
Raducanu’s parents are both in finance and so it is of interest to look at what the sponsorship might mean. Strangely, HSBC say they are unable to comment which makes one wonder a little about the depth of their commitment to the question itself. However, there can be no doubt that financial literacy is of importance and that the broad idea is valuable, even if HSBC’s approach to the sponsorship might be deemed unduly standoffish.
I talk to Anna Freeman, founder of Zavfit, a business committed to financial literacy. So, what does she make of the partnership between Raducanu and the bank? “From a marketing perspective it makes a lot of sense,” she tells me. “HSBC has always looked to use ambassadors who connect cultures while using sport as a tool for education around their brand and products. Emma is a great example of someone who is young and has found her passion and taken her chance with a brilliant platform to carry a message to a new generation.”
Of course, it’s not necessarily a straightforward match. Freeman continues: “While it’s hard to ignore the fact that Emma won’t be having financial struggles herself anytime soon and she’ll have obligations to support HSBC with their advertising returns, she is relatable to a younger audience while representing aspiration, so using her to help bring education to the next generation is very important. However well it does as a campaign, we’d like the big players like HSBC to continue using real people in everyday situations to tell their stories and make the conversation reach everyone.”
2JDRRM0 Emma Raducanu features on HSBC advertising outside their branch in Wimbledon ahead of the 2022 Wimbledon Championship at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon. Picture date: Thursday June 23, 2022.
So why is financial literacy a problem in society? “It’s not understood because it’s not interesting. It’s not interesting because it’s not relatable,” Freeman replies. “Children and young people have learnt preconceptions about financial literacy and money from their parents which will usually have a negative connotation. We’re made to think that ‘money = problems’ and so we avoid learning about it. We’re then brought into a society where every finance operator sells the same thing ‘Saving is Good, Spending is Bad’ and the cycle continues from generation to generation.”
So what is Freeman’s solution? “Instead of talking about all the bad things associated with finance, why don’t we talk about the good it could do?” she asks. “How to spend our money in ways that improve our health and happiness and get away from the model that finance is all about protecting a future that feels like lightyears away to the younger generation.”
This failure has real mental health effects in Freeman’s view, and it’s this insight which led to her founding Zavfit. “From our perspective, we see money in the same as diet and fitness – we know people want to do the right thing but they don’t know what that is. We’re all different and so we need to find what works for us. Instead of ‘how much money do I have’ we should be thinking about ‘How can my money make me happy’.”
The above conversation illustrates the power of Raducanu: she can make us talk about things which we wouldn’t otherwise talk about.
Eschewing the Negative
But, of course, building a brand is a complicated business. Formerly of BDB Pitmans, Stuart Thomson is one of the UK’s foremost public affairs practitioners and explains: “Hitting the heights of winning the US Open at such a young age has presented Raducanu with the opportunity of building her brand the way she wants it to be. For many more established players, there isn’t the level of interest or relative blank sheet that Raducanu has. That lack of history is a real benefit to her.”
And does he foresee any difficulties there? “Well, with that, of course, comes the pressure not only to win more tournaments but also to live and breathe her newly established personal brand. Many audiences will be interested in any deviations from the brand and use that against her or to generate click-bait adverse headlines. She will need to get the right people around her in both a sporting and communications setting so that her brand is built and protected for the long-term.”
And, of course, there is a substantial team of people behind her from her financially savvy parents; her agents Helliar and Max Eisenbud; her physiotherapist Will Herbert; her nutritionist Kate Shilland; and hitting partner Matthew James. Professional sport as it grows and expands produces an array of well-paid careers undreamed of even 20 years ago.
Despite these people around her, tennis is often considered a highly individual sport – and it is. There is a loneliness about the match situation which can only be partially offset by the creation of a large entourage. This is tennis’ particular fascination: it is a game of fine margins, where the scoring system makes it possible to win more points than your opponent but still be defeated because you didn’t win the crucial points at a crucial time. There isn’t another sport like this which so advertises the need to compete well in pressure situations.
In others words, it’s an abnormally stressful career choice. It might also be said that Raducanu’s story opens up onto the whole question of positivity in sport and in our lives generally. Her uniqueness is so far encapsulated by that incredible run at Flushing Meadows in 2021. If she never wins another major championship it will always be a remarkable story: it can never be taken away from her.
So how did she manage to hit those heights, and what might we ourselves learn in our careers from her? After all, work must be said to have its element of performance, analogous to sporting performance.
To learn more, I talk to leading psychologist Dr. Paul Hokemeyer, who tells me: “Succeeding in both competitive sports and a competitive life in times of elevated stress requires us to elevate above our emotional reactivity and utilize our prefrontal cortex. This is the part of our brain that enables us to control our emotional responses and channel them into concrete and focused action.”
What’s interesting is that Hokemeyer doesn’t just find this in his sporting patients; it’s replicated in other sectors. “Many of my highly successful patients frequently describe this ability as ‘supernatural’ or as an ‘out of body’ experience,” he continues. “They go on to explain how in this state, they are removed from what they see as their human form and come to occupy a highly mechanical state that has no feelings. In this highly automized state of being, their emotional reactivity is suspended, their physical sensations fall away and their mind becomes myopically focused on the immediate task at hand – be that task winning a tennis match or closing a real estate deal.”
When it comes to Raducanu, she has been able to reach heights few other players have ever managed, but then she has found it hard to rediscover that form. Likewise, in our own lives we have good days and bad days, a period of peak performance, and moments when we end up wondering why we couldn’t replicate our best.
So what is happening to us in our careers when things aren’t working out? Hokemeyer tells me: “When it comes to sport, not everyone is biologically wired to withstand this intense level of being. Some people, in spite of their talents and discipline are genetically wired and environmentally tuned to reject the pressures and stresses of elite competition. Their central nervous systems short circuit the elevated cognition needed to stay focused. For these people, failing or surrendering becomes a primitive and highly successful strategy to put them back into a place of physical and emotional safety.’
So on some level then, it’s almost as if we want to lose. Eaton, who now coaches at Wake Forest, one of the top tennis universities in the the US, agrees with Hokemeyer, and tells me that the very top players – Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray – all of whom he has got to know well on tour and as a coach, very rarely let this mindset enter into the picture. “These very top guys. They have five or six people to take care of them, which definitely helps. But take Andy Murray, who I got to know well – his attention to detail is amazing. Here at Wake Forrest, I’m coaching 22-year-olds and some are very good and some will turn pro. But what’s hard is to get across how far along the best guys are in terms of desire.”
Eaton gives me an example: “Look at the Andy Murray Netflix documentary Resurfacing. It just punches you in the face how desperate he is to be great. You watch the practice drill, the warm-ups, what he’s doing between shots: everything is immaculate. It stinks of desperation to be great. Very successful people are operating on that different level of detail.”
And yet for everybody – even for Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, and certainly for Raducanu – things go wrong. “For my players here,” continues Eaton, “I see the frustration when it comes to dealing with things going wrong. It’s not this generation’s strength: they’re very used to getting what they want and so when things don’t go well they don’t always respond well.”
For Eaton, if you look at the stories of the great players, they always met a moment similar to the one Raducanu finds herself in 2023. “It seems like everybody has to conquer a personal flaw to get to be great. Federer for a while was too angry, or maybe too relaxed in his personality. He conquered that. Nadal used to seem scared or too timid; he certainly conquered that. There was a point when Djokovic would complain too much about injury. And in that documentary, you can see Andy Murray sitting in a hotel room in Australia having just lost to Djokovic in the semi-final, and saying, ‘This is not acceptable. What can I do to change this?’”
And Raducanu? “It will be interesting to see how she deals with it. She’s young and she’s got expectation and there’s this way out smiling at her – her marketing ability. It will be interesting to see how desperate she is to be great.”
Careers wise, there are sports psychologists out there to help the likes of Raducanu, and a good coach will also be a mentor: here, then, we meet another analogy between the world of work and sport.
One of the leading sports psychologists is Matt Shaw who works for Inner Drive. So what work does he do and how did he discover it was what he wanted to do?
“In my role, I work in two main contexts, in sport and in education. In sport I tend to work in two key areas: all-round development and learning and performance under pressure. In the all-round development element, I help athletes to learn better, improve and to grow as a person, whereas in the performance under pressure element, I help athletes to thrive under pressure when it matters most. Both my sport and education roles require me to deliver 1-1 support to athletes and speak in front of large groups of pupils, staff, and parents.”
So how does he teach players to optimise performance? “Our athletes work with us to explore what being mentally strong really looks like in the build-up to a big event. For example, working on things like how to deal with mistakes, asking for help, and how to appraise stressful and important events. This enables athletes to better focus on what’s important in the moment and to think in helpful ways in order to perform at their best.”
Matt wisely refrains from commenting on Raducanu’s precise plight as he says it’s not helpful to comment from the outside. I ask him instead what it is about those like Tiger Woods who do come back from injury, and what we might ourselves – and perhaps Raducanu herself – might learn from them? “What we tend to see with experts like Tiger Woods and other successful athletes is not only a physical muscle type memory whereby they are able to complete successful movements over and over again, but also a resilience that is built by a long and often challenging path to success. For many athletes we often only hear about their success which of course teaches them how to win and the emotional control associated with that. However, it’s often the tough moments that the best grow in and learn from to get better next time.”
By that measure, Raducanu is entering the most important years of her life now; what she chooses to do in these years will define her as an athlete and as a person. It will be difficult, as all careers are, but that difficulty is also a gigantic opportunity for a new level of greatness.
Simply the Best
But there are many promising signs that Raducanu is grounded and self-aware. She knows she is in that rare category who have not only discovered what they might be capable of, but explored it, conquered her demons, and achieved a career as a result.
But this isn’t the case for everyone; many have an inkling that tennis might be for them, but they have no serious chance of knowing for sure one way or the other. For instance, she has shown herself admirably concerned over the question of social mobility and tennis.
The great issue in relation to tennis is that many young people from disadvantaged backgrounds don’t have the opportunity even to discover if a tennis career is possible for them: our country is full of a latent athleticism which, lacking an easy outlet, fizzles out in far too many cases.
2G68NJ7 Emma Raducanu of Great Britain in action against Sorana Cirstea of Romania during the third round at The Championships Wimbledon 2021, Grand Slam tennis tournament on July 3, 2021 at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London, England – Photo Rob Prange / Spain DPPI / DPPI
Fortunately, there are many people, and some of them highly influential, who are making it their life’s mission to fix the problem.
One is Nino Severino, a former tennis coach, and the widower of former British No. 1 Elena Baltacha. To say Baltacha, who died of liver cancer at the horribly early age of 30 in 2014, is much missed is to riot in understatement: when she died, she left a terrible gap in many lives.
But this might be to state the case too despairingly: because of what Baltacha committed to during her life, she continues to impact lives positively: her generosity of spirit is her legacy, and, as you talk to Nino, an astonishingly active legacy at that. Raducanu donated two tennis rackets to the charity auction organised by charity Love All, with proceeds going to several charities including the Elena Baltacha Foundation.
I ask Nino how the foundation started: “It was when we were travelling. What Bally noticed whenever we were travelling was that tennis is typically for more affluent children and the kids in the deprived areas weren’t getting a chance because tennis didn’t go to the schools. She said she wanted to do something about it.”
Many would make the observation and then do little about it. Bally, by all accounts, wasn’t like that. “In between travelling the world on tour, we started to organise school trips with a view to introducing tennis to deprived areas.”
Soon others became involved: “Judy Murray loved the idea. That was back in 2010 and she loved Bally like a daughter. She came on as patron and then she was followed by Martina Navratilova. All we’ve tried to do is get as many girls as possible into tennis.”
Raducanu has sometimes been deemed a poster girl for social mobility in tennis. After the famous 2021 US Open victory, the Olympian javelin-thrower Tessa Sanderson wrote in The Sun: “For years, tennis in Britain was generally regarded as a white and middle class sport but thanks to Emma Raducanu now it is not.”
Severino agrees: “Emma is as close to a tennis miracle as you can get. Qualifying was tricky enough so to go and do that. It’s funny though, in all my years of coaching, you come to realise there’s no accident. It’s their pathway to greatness, and it’s their opportunity to continue their rise.”
What Severino is now focused on is giving that same opportunity to as many people as possible. The Elena Baltacha Foundation is focused on young people who may well get on the track to a professional career. Judy Murray (“she really gets her hands dirty”, Severino says) is focused on helping kids near Dunblane. Tim Henman is active in the area too with the Tim Henman Foundation.
Another is Patrick Hollwey, who has founded TennisForFree with comedian Tony Hawks, a charity which aims to regenerate park space with a view to giving young people the opportunity to take part in tennis.
Hollwey tells me about the genesis of TennisForFree: “It’s a bizarre story as to how it all started. My wife was always a tennis player and when I took it up I must admit that I found the cliquiness in clubs quite off-putting. It’s not the most welcoming of environments if you’re not a good player.”
This caught his attention and as his interest in the sport grew, something began to bug him: “I began to notice that the public courts were never used and were padlocked. You had to go down to a hut, pay to get on the court and it made the game a bit unwelcoming.”
And how did he pair up Hawks? “A few months later I was on a plane coming back from India with Tony, and we had both had pretty rough trips. We sat at the bar and put the world to rights; among the topics discussed was the elitism of middle class sport. A few days after the flight, Tony called me up and asked if I was serious about making a difference. I said I was. So we went down to the local tennis court and chained Tony to it. Then we sent a cutting email to the Minister for Sport, the Head of the LTA and other tennis luminaries and we essentially said: “This is a public sporting facilitiy that is locked and excluding people. You don’t do this with basketball, or skateboard parks. Why do you do it with a tennis court?”
Fast forward to 2023 and many people have listened. For one thing, Hollwey and Hawks have an impressive list of celebrity endorsers including Pat Cash, Hugh Grant and Stephen Fry. But the government and the LTA are listening now too.
Hollwey is among those who applauds the government and the LTA in committing to delivering this changed landscape: “We talk with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. DCMS is currently investing £22 million into public tennis courts, and the LTA top that up with £8 million, and £3o million over the next few years. That’s a lot of money going into the question of rectifying the dilapidation of public facilities.”
But there’s still a long way to go, he adds: “What we need to do is to encourage people to get out there. People need to know what is available and what the benefits are, and I don’t think enough people know of the opportunities.”
This is where Raducanu is of such importance. Hollwey says: “I can’t think of any comparisons to Emma’s story – not even Leicester City winning the premier league. To go through qualifying like that – it’s Roy of the Rovers stuff. She’s inspirational to young girls and teenage girls are the hardest to get into the sport – and then to retain.”
Business case
Tennis then keeps intersecting with other things: with politics, with business, and with our essential ideas about justice. Perhaps this is a function of its popularity; but of course not all young people who take tennis seriously can have a lengthy career in it.
We might forget what a high level the top players are at: it is quite likely that even if you are stratospherically good at tennis, you’ll eventually meet a ceiling where you can’t get any better.
But if that’s the case then there are other options; excellence at tennis has much to teach us about how to attain excellence in the wider world. Hokemeyer tells me: “I rarely find a highly successful person who has not engaged in some sort of sport in the past or is currently engaged in a sport of some kind in the present. For this reason, I advise the parents I work with to find some sort of sport, activity or hobby their children can engage in.” So what are the precise benefits? “Sport enables our children to cultivate discipline and develop a sense of agency over their lives,” Hokemeyer explains. “In clinical speak, through sport we develop what’s known as an internal locus control. We see the connection between effort and outcome and we develop healthy bodies and minds that can manage stress and conflict in productive ways. It’s also important to note that people can start playing a sport, be it tennis or bridge at any stage of their life.”
Severino sees other synergies between sport and business. “You’ve got to have a Plan B,” he explains and points to his work at SportsSkills4Business which aims to help young people beyond their sporting journey. “We want our SS4B Student Athletes to know that their time in sport is not only about learning how to become technically and tactically skilful at their sport, but also to be connected with the virtues and skills that being a competitive athlete will provide them with,” the website’s mission states.
Hollwey is also bullish about the opportunities available in sport: “There are so many opportunities for people to work in sport. A lot of coaches left the sport during the pandemic; they had no work and took up other temporary careers which have turned into full time careers. So there is a shortage of supply of coaches and particularly new young coaches with a different mentality and a different outlook.”
Eaton also points out the win-win nature of trying to make it at tennis, or other sports. “Some of my students go on to be pro, and go onto the tour; some do well and others struggle,” he says. “We have the same conversation, and I always say: “Go on tour and play for a year.” Don’t go straight into a job. For employers, it’s quite appealing to have somebody who’s been a sportsman, and who has some real experience of having travelled the world. Sport gets you far: it shows that you’re decent under pressure, able to deal with things when they go wrong. I say to my guys: “Do you really want to be the same person as 700 other applicants?” You can say: “I’ve done everything they’ve done, but I’ve spent the last two years in 25 different countries, basically running my own business.”
And Raducanu? The curious thing about these tennis players is that they exercise a certain fascination because of fame, talent, and wealth. But something about the way they acquired all this is so extraordinarily simple – a case of dedication and talent at a single sport – that you find yourself looking for the next thing about them. But often there really isn’t much more to it than this and that is what feeds the media frenzy: an appetite has been created for something which isn’t there.
With Raducanu, the more I look into her I feel differently: she has hit the heights but shown rare dignity when difficulty has arisen. She’s been wise and thoughtful in her choice of sponsors, and articulate about what she wants to achieve, and philosophical when she’s had setbacks. Our world is full of sporting phenomena. Raducanu, in her talent, her single-mindedness, and in her fallibility is something rarer. The only word for it is inspiration – and you don’t need to be a budding tennis player to feel it.
Emma Raducanu Timeline
Nov. 13th, 2002 – Born in Toronto, Ontario to Ion Raducanu and her mother Renee Zhai.
2004 – Moves to England at the age of two, raised in Bromley
2006 – Attends Bickley Primary school in Bromley
2007 – Begins playing tennis, alongside a number of other hobbies including gokart racing, ballet, and horse riding
2013 – Begins attending Newstead Wood School in Orpington
2015 – Becomes the youngest ever to win an International Tennis Federation tournament at the age of 13 when she wins the Nike Junior International in Liverpool
2018 – Professional debut on the ITF women’s circuit, winning the $15,000 ITF Tiberias, her first professional title. Later that year, she would go on to win a second title at the ITF Antalya.
2020 – During the pandemic, she wins LTA British Tour Masters title while preparing for her upcoming A-level exams.
2021 – She reaches the fourth round in her Grand Slam main-draw debut, before winning the US Open without dropping a set. She tests positive for Covid-19, causing her to miss her second exhibition match at Royal Albert Hall. She completes her A-levels, earning an A* and an A in mathematics and economics, respectively.
2022 – Faces aftereffects of Covid-19 and injury, leading to an early withdrawal from the Nottingham Open and causing her to miss Eastbourne. She competes in Wimbledon where she is defeated in the second round, and enters the US Open again where she loses her opening match.
I am sometimes asked if there’s any danger of children being put off by reading Shakespeare. Our children at Michaela Community, some of them start here at 11 years old and they’ve got the reading age of a seven year old and so we are just trying to get them to read at all – especially in the age of phones and Internet and so forth.
You might have a few kids in the top set who might read. When I do assemblies and take copies of Julia Donaldson and ask who’s read The Gruffalo and so on, a few children from the top sets might put their hands up, but most won’t. So they don’t really know books at all. For us, it’s not a question of should we do Ian Fleming instead of Shakespeare. It’s much more fundamental than that.
In our library we have speed reads, what they are books written for six and seven and eight year olds, we don’t want them to feel they’re written for younger children. The idea of them being voracious readers isn’t accurate, apart from a few children in the top set. One of them we say when families come into Year 7, is we want children reading half an hour every day – that’s additional to their English lessons. For some of them, we say, they can do ten minutes a day.
But in their lessons, they love Shakespeare. In their lessons they really enjoy it – they understand him, they can access him, and it’s dramatic. But our families have never heard of Hamlet – not only do the kids not know, but the parents don’t know. And the few who have, certainly don’t talk to them about it at home.
We’re trying to get families to talk to their children – and it could be about anything. Many middle class people without knowing it are in on this secret club without knowing it where everyone knows how to teach their children. They mention Hamlet, or they count how many peas are on the plate, or the daily news, or they teach them who the prime minister is, and to ask how their day is. They know how to do it and it’s naturally.
I’ve worked my whole life with people who don’t know much about their children. The question then is how to change this. The problem is that education moves very slowly. What’s a good today can be a bad school in three years’ time. The Education Secretary changes every couple of years and if you set up a new school it takes five years before you have results but by then you’ve had two education secretaries. It takes a while for things to change.
People in government I know from working in the Social Mobility Commission, they’ll change every few months – somebody new joins, and trying to find consistency is really hard and and that’s why there’s no institutional knowledge. I don’t know how you fix that – you’d have to change the way government works.
I suspect it’s a problem across government. It’s one of the things which makes the state weak. The people at Apple have been at Apple for years and year. Of course, they’ll bring in new people and lose people, but at any point time you’ll find that the core people have been there for at least eight to ten years. In government, you’ll often find that people have been there for that period, but the system they’ve been moving around within government doing different roles.
It’s not that they leave government, or that they’re not paid enough, it’s just the way the government is set up. Those who work there like the variety. I bought all my team of the Social Mobility Commission to Michaela Community to show them what’s possible, but it takes a long time to get them on board. And then you get them on board and they go off to some other part of government.
I’ve never chaired a commission and I’m not giving up just yet. I’m at the stage where I’m persuading people, and people are coming on board and I’m hoping people will stay and they won’t move. I’m hoping they’ll stick with me because they’ll have been inspired by what they see and hear.
Katharine Birbalsingh is the headmistress of Michaela Community School
