Ottawa Event: Rory Stewart on Afghanistan

A heads up for any Ottawa area readers out there, Rory Stewart is speaking on 3 April at the International Development Research Centre. Details are available here.

In 2000, Rory Stewart took a leave from his post as a British diplomat and spent the next two years walking across Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal. He described his 6 000-mile journey in his book, The Places in Between, which the New York Times called “a flat-out masterpiece” and named as one of its Ten Best Books of 2006.

In 2003, Stewart became the coalition Deputy Governor of Maysan and Dhi Qar -- two provinces in Southern Iraq. His second book, The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq, recounts his experiences negotiating hostage releases, holding elections, and generally trying to establish a functional government shortly after the coalition forces entered Iraq.

Stewart has written for a range of publications including the New York Times, the London Review of Books, the Guardian, the Financial Times and Granta.In 2004, was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and he became a Fellow of the Carr Centre at Harvard University. He now lives in Kabul, where he runs the Turquoise Mountain Foundation.

Wish I could go.