Jessica Fellowes discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Jessica Fellowes is an author, journalist and public speaker. The Mitford Murders is her debut series as a novelist and has been nominated for awards in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, and sold into eighteen territories. Jessica is also the author of five official companion books to ‘Downton Abbey,’ various of which hit the New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller lists. Former columnist for the Mail on Sunday and deputy editor of Country Life, she has written business books with Sophie Cornish MBE, ‘The Devil You Know’ with forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes and short stories for Vogue Italia and L’Uomo Vogue. Jessica makes frequent appearances on radio, podcasts and television, has a Substack – Your Fellowes Reader – and lives in Oxfordshire with her family.
Sarah Wilson discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Sarah Wilson is a multi-New York Times bestselling author, journalist, social philosopher, international keynote speaker and philanthropist. Sarah leads dynamic, global conversations about modern philosophy, creativity, existential risk, and climate change via her keynote speaking, Wild podcast, and her Substack and social communities. She lives nomadically, but is based between Paris and Sydney, and is a compulsive hiker and adventurer. Her new book is I Eat the Stars.
Ian Proud discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Ian Proud is an expert in strategic thinking, politico-economic analysis and diplomatic tradecraft. He was a member of His Majesty’s Diplomatic Service from 1999 to 2023. During that time, he was one of the Foreign Office’s most accomplished crisis experts and was Chair of the Crisis Committee at the British Embassy in Moscow when the Salisbury nerve agent attack happened in March 2018. He posts international relations articles and podcasts from his Substack page, The Peacemonger. His first novel, Searching, is now available.
1. Curiosity –One reason we see so much racism and intolerance is a lack of curiosity in society. So, talk to your colleagues or the person sat next to you on the train or the bus and find out something about them that you didn’t know. As much as anything, it will make the journey less of a drag for you and for them. Learn a foreign language – it’s the best way to get into the culture, history and food of a new country and, in my opinion, it vastly improves your enjoyment of the world around you. But it also promotes greater understanding that we are all different, and that most people just want to live a happy life like we do.
2. Boat 813 – for me the most vivid symbol of the destructive power of the 2004 tsunami is the 60-ton Royal Thai Navy patrol boat that was dragged 2 kilometres inland. I saw it for the first time just a few days after that tragic event beside the road as I drove towards Takua Pa, where bodies of the victims were being collected. What is most remarkable, is that it was carried over tall trees before coming to rest, upright, where it stands today in the 813 Tsunami Memorial Park, Bang Niang. It’s a peaceful place of reflection now. And that whole area is rich with beautiful vacation spots again, from the flat golden beaches of Khao Lak to the beautiful limestone islands that dot Phang Nga Bay.
3. Stink beans – the first time you eat stink beans, or sataw as they are known in Thai, the taste is bitter and overpowering. The second time you eat them you might be addicted, like me. Fried simply with shrimp paste, pad sataw is one of my favourite Thai dishes. It’s a reminder to try different street foods, not just in Thailand but also via the thriving pop-up food culture in Britain. And about the value of second chances.
4. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute’s 1950 book explores our human ability to endure terrible suffering and yet survive, potentially find true love and live happily ever after. This is a theme I explore in Searching. In A Town Like Alice, the protagonists are both prisoners of the Japanese in World War II. Joe, the Aussie solider ends up crucified for helping Jean Paget (also from Southampton like me, by the way) and the group of women and children she is with on a forced march. She always wondered whether he survived that terrible ordeal… It is also partially set in Malaya where my parents started their married life 1960. One of my earliest, happiest childhood memories is of watching the 1956 movie with my parents.
5. King Charles Street – the façade of the Foreign Office, directly adjacent to Downing Street, is grand and intimidating, which doesn’t help the perception that British diplomats are out of touch elitists. And yet the vast majority are not. Take me, for example, I come from a working-class family and took my degree through part-time day release in Southampton. You can sometimes visit the Foreign Office during London Open House week each September. I’d encourage you to go and admire its fine rooms. And perhaps talk to some of the staff and realise that they are just regular folk. You can enjoy St James Park after, which features in Searching.
6. Sleep – in a crisis, I can work for forty hours without sleep, although I wouldn’t recommend it. A healthy pattern of sleep is the foundation for our physical and mental wellbeing. Our energy to play with the kids or bring maximum focus to our work. And it’s is often stolen or disrupted by work, anxiety or alcoholism. So, embrace bedtime as a chance to recover and rejuvenate. Lean into the power nap, like me, and my routine of falling asleep on the sofa during Bargain Hunt. But be aware that sleepiness can be our foe when we are really stressed. So, own your sleep and don’t let it own you; if you feel sleepy all the time, it might be a reminder to get up and go out for a walk with family or friends, to recharge your emotional batteries…
Sahar Hashemi discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Sahar Hashemi OBE has enjoyed a successful career as an entrepreneur, bestselling author and business thought leader. Initially forging her success as the Co-Founder and former CEO of Coffee Republic, the UK’s first American-style coffee bar chain, Sahar has since built great authority as a business leader and earned an appointment of OBE for her services to the UK economy and charity. Now the Co-Founder of Buy Women Built and hired as a leading keynote speaker, Sahar is commended for her ability to build more creative, customer-centric and resilient workplaces in which a “can do” spirit is paramount.
Eleanor Anstruther discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Eleanor Anstruther was educated at Westminster School but dropped out of university to travel the world where she was lost and found for twelve years. When she inherited a farm in southern England she set up a commune and began to write. Her debut, A Perfect Explanation (Salt Books) was a finalist for the Desmond Eliot Prize & Not The Booker. She now lives not quietly at all between London, Surrey and the south of France. Her latest novel, Fallout (Empress Editions) is out now. Find her on Substack at The Literary Obsessive.
Xi Jinping’s “Great Changes Unseen in a Century”, an understanding that the next few years will be characterized by the need to survive chaos rather than preserving or building order.
Bicycling through big cities – London, New York, Paris, Berlin
Zaho de Sagazan – a brilliant singer-songwriter and performer who is bringing French chanson into the electronic age
George Soros’s philosophy – the billionaire investor and philanthropist is best known for making money but just as important is his understanding of how to live in a world that is out of balance
Drummond Street in North London, the home of the best South Indian restaurants in Europe
Neil Kinnock – the greatest political orator of my life-time who reinvented the Labour Party and is now campaigning for Britain to join the EU.
Tahmima Anam discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Tahmima Anam is the author of the Bengal trilogy and a recipient of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book and the O. Henry Award. Her short story ‘Garments’ was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. She is a Granta Best of Young British Novelist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she trained as an anthropologist at Harvard University and now lives in London. Her new novel is Uprising, which is a Political Fiction Book Prize Finalist for the Orwell Prize.
Séamas O’Reilly discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Séamas O’Reilly is a writer and author who has worked as a columnist for the Observer, the Irish Times and the Irish Examiner. He is Features Editor of London satirical magazine, The Fence and his writing has appeared in The Guardian, the New Statesman and the New York Times. His memoir Did Ye Hear Mammy Died topped the Irish Times Bestseller List for seven weeks, and won Best Biography at the 2021 Irish Book Awards. Séamas currently lives in Walthamstow, London with his family. His new novel is Prestige Drama.
Ed Maklouf discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Ed Maklouf attended school in England before moving to the USA to study at Stanford University, where he conducted specialized research into group communication and how people make decisions together. After graduating, he went on to found several start-up companies in the emerging field of “democracy technology,” building tools designed to improve participation, representation, and large-scale deliberation.
His work eventually led him to Barcelona, where he began a sustained research project on voting systems. During this period, he came to know and collaborate with leaders of the Arhuaco tribe in Colombia, whose sophisticated traditions of consensus and guardianship of the Sierra Nevada deeply influenced his thinking. Maklouf now serves as ambassador for the Arhuaco Sen Foundation, helping to connect Indigenous perspectives on agreement with contemporary debates about democracy and governance.
The Majority Myth grows out of several years of research into Collective Agreement: a framework that combines formal voting theory and Indigenous knowledge systems to ask when a decision can truly claim to speak for ‘the people’.
4. My Mum’s Paintings My dad is a well known sculptor, Raphael Maklouf, who sculpted the portrait of the Queen on UK coins, but my mum never shows her work.
Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen discuss with Ivan six things which they think should be better known.
Emer McLysaght & Sarah Breen are co-authors of the Aisling series. Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling was the bestselling fiction title of 2017 in Ireland and its sequel, The Importance of Being Aisling, won the award for best popular fiction book at the 2018 Irish Book Awards. The third book in the series, Once, Twice, Three Times an Aisling, won the same award the following year and the fourth book in the series, Aisling and the City, won again in 2021. The final book in the series, Aisling Ever After, was published in Autumn 2023 and was an instant number one bestseller. Combined, the Aisling books have sold more than 400,000 copies to date. Their new novel is Our Deadly Summer.
1. In 2015 Ireland legalised a number of Class A drugs for 24 hours because of a loophole in legislation.
2. An Irishman invented cheese and onion crisps at his kitchen table in 1954
3. The Irish language
4. Nearly all the world’s Viagra is made in a small Irish town
5. Ireland is the only country in the world to have had a female, democratically elected head of state be succeeded by another female, democratically elected head of state, and both were called Mary
Better Known 