UK in Minsk

Local history – Soviet heritage… I recently visited some places in Belarus for the first time.  The most striking was the tower of Kamianets, one of several strongholds built by the rulers of the Volhynia principality in the 13th century to protect their northern border.  It is one of the few medieval remains in Belarus.  […]

Sir Terry Pratchett, the witty creator of Discworld I don’t read fantasy books – they’re just not my taste.  So I’ve not read any novels by Sir Terry Pratchett, the author who died two weeks ago. He wrote 40 novels about an imaginary place called “Discworld” which was, apparently, a “flat disc balanced on the […]

Belarus is a net exporter of services just like Britain, so I discovered recently.  I was surprised, and have been wondering which services Belarus is exporting.  After my blog about tourism to Belarus, I wanted to write about a key element of tourism:  service culture. Services and service culture aren’t the same, but understanding one […]

(on occasion of UK participation in the 2015 Minsk international book fair) I was attracted to my job by Russian culture, which I first came across in my late adolescent and early adult years.  It started with music and literature – mostly 19th century.  But then I read a lot about 20th century Russian and […]

Last week, we formally opened the new Visa Application Centre in Minsk.  This was a satisfying moment as we had been working on this for much of last year. The new centre in Minsk is part of a global programme to close visa sections in embassies, and transfer the application process to privately run application […]

We are going home for Christmas.  But we’re only back for less than three weeks, and we won’t be living in our house.  So we won’t have the complete British Christmas that I described last year.  But we’ll be spending time with family and friends, and re-visiting favourite places. I’m looking forward to it. As […]

Stereotypes about nations are dangerous things.  I read recently that national stereotypes exist for a reason.  Maybe, but they can breed prejudice – in the sense of “pre-judging” people or places based on a stereotype before you encounter them. What of stereotypes about Britain?  I hope many of  my previous blogs have challenged some of […]

I give many talks in English because there is a good demand for me to do so.  Most of my audiences are younger people at universities, and one asked earlier this year how different young people in Belarus were to those in Britain.  I had to think hard before I gave my answer. Much of […]

Political life has been fascinating in the last few weeks in Britain. I was lucky enough to be in London in mid-September and watched, listened and read lots from the British media about the Scottish referendum. Like any good contest, the outcome was not certain. There was lively debate and on the day, a high […]

I recently received an invitation to talk about dress. A business club wanted to hear my views about how to dress for business meetings. I’m always happy to speak in public, but I wasn’t sure that I was the best person to give advice on this subject. I probed for more detail. Apparently, some business […]