I’m a journalist, based in Paris. I’ve covered France, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey and many other countries. I also teach a course in Strategic Studies, Asian politics at Paris 13 University. The views expressed on this blog were my own at the time of writing and do not, so far as I know, reflect those of my employers.
Read all about me! Find links to some of my journalistic work here

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Moderate, extremist and other words that skew the news
Austerity – the new normal
The white working class – does it exist and should you despise it?
Charlie and me – Islamophobia, racism, freedom of expression and equality in France
Death of a circumflex – France’s spelling-change panic and why we’re so conservative
Corbyn’s election sends British right wing back to the 1980s, can his supporters resist?
Corbynmania and the Sanders surge are a rejection of consumer politics
The Greek debacle and the education of Yanis Varoufakis
Beware Greeks bearing ballot boxes
Why the US will start a war with China (perhaps)
War, what is it good for?
Spam and a can of worms

Charlie and me – Islamophobia, racism, freedom of expression and equality in France
Death of a circumflex – France’s spelling-change panic and why we’re so conservative
Record French tax haul shows how much corporate tax dodgers cost us all
Why is support for France’s Front National rising?
Why did IS attack Paris?
Pursuing tax-dodgers , even half-heartedly, nets France 20bn euros for France

Turkey’s divisions run deep as referendum result shows
A bomb, a baby, a hunger strike – the Kurds and Turkey’s referendum
Turkey referendum – Not a fair fight for No campaign
Turkey turns to Russia amid allegations of US coup complicity
How far will Turkey’s post-coup purge go?
Turkey’s post-coup purge brings fear of media witch-hunt
Two rallies and a purge – Istanbul after Turkey’s failed coup
Who was behind Turkey’s military coup?
War with PKK, assaults on media freedom and clampdown on dissent to continue after Erdogan’s win in Turkey’s election
At the martyrs’ cemetery – death and destruction in a Turkish military security zone in Kurd country
Before the Paris attacks – IS’s dangerous liaisons in Turkey
Liberated areas, military repression and Kurdish politics in Diyarbakir before Turkey’s 2015 election
Peace and authoritarian Erdogan – issues in Istanbul in Turkey’s 2015 autumn election
Turkey presidential election 2014 – Erdogan’s victory showed signs of troubles to come

Eyewitness: Afghanistan 2001 after the fall of the Taliban
Ethnic powerbroking, warlords and corruption in Afghanistan’s ‘fairly democratic’ 2004 presidential election
Women, warlords, drug-runners and NGOs … eyewitness to Afghanistan’s 2005 legislative election in Kabul and Herat
Pakistani atheist infiltrates jihadi training camps
Pakistan votes to end military rule under shadow of violence
In rural Pakistan politics is still a violent, feudal, family business
Crime, poverty, Baloch nationalism and politics in Karachi
Between Islamists and the military – two voices of the Pakistani left
Family business – Pakistani powerbrokers the Gujrat Chaudhrys plan to stay in the post-Musharraf game
Lions, tigers and tight security as Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) builds on Punjab base
Peoples Party trades on Benazir martyrdom to harvest votes from poor in Pakistan’s 2008 election
Kidnapped, tortured, sold to the Americans … Pakistan’s missing persons, casualties of the war on terror
Pakistan’s Islamist parties – a legacy of military dictators and Afghanistan’s wars
Hamid Gul, the spy who went into the cold
India 2004: Gangsters, politics, poverty, caste and communal violence in Modi’s Gujarat and Bombay

Israel’s 2009 offensive on Gaza – a turning point in the Israel-Palestine conflict
Iraq 2003: Families search for Saddam’s victims
Looting, firefights, occupation … Eyewitness in Baghdad 2003 after Saddam
War, what is it good for?

The Raving Reporter