Hugh Philpott (@hughphilpott) restacking this interesting research for new subscribers

substack.com/@hughphilpot... I wrote this a while back. The Oxus is a fascinating river. #Tajikistan #centralasia

A fragment of an ancient Assyrian stone relief. I think it was at Nimrud in Iraq. I took the picture in 1988. #Iraq #Nimrud

I took this picture nearly forty years ago in Babylon. I know it’s a copy or facsimile as the museum curators call it. I think it is an extract from the Epic of Gilgamesh in Akkadian cuneiform. Found it in old photos. Good exercise for the memory. #Iraq #cuneiform #Gilgamesh

Some @bluesky or blueish over the #blackthorn which some people confuse with #hawthorn or the Mayflower - don’t ! Otherwise you will be ‘casting a clout’ before ‘the May is out’ and getting cold … I expect someone will understand

Some #bluesky @bsky.app thinking - if people don’t engage elsewhere I shall come here.

Hugh Philpott (@hughphilpott) Karbala We found ourselves in Karbala more than once during our posting to Baghdad between 1988 and 1990. I remember this façade clearly, the cool blues of the tilework and the band of calligraphy above, and in front of it all ordinary life unfolding with cars parked and people passing in the dusty sunlight of Iraq in those years. It was not presented as something separate or preserved. It was a place of worship and peace open to everyone with no security. it simply was part of the fabric of the place. I am sure it has been restored and ‘improved’ but nothing beats the sorts of visits we made in those days when you simply drove up and parked and spent the time haggling in the Suuq and sitting quietly in the shrine. Decades later I discovered the same architectural styles throughout Central Asia, but this was my original point of reference. Credits to Janine Philpott who took the picture.

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Landscape and the Sound of Place A musical outing on the no.12 from Eastbourne to Brighton

Landscape and the Sound of Place substack.com/@hughphilpot... - you will enjoy this one - it evokes sound and place as I experienced it. It first appeared in #ROSAmagazine The Review of Sussex Art last spring.

The Tyger, The Lamb, and a Life in Between
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#Wordsworth #sussex #poetry #englishliterature
I hope you enjoy reading this true story and also the playlist I have made - there are some surprising entries - find me on substack or at www.hughphilpott.com

open.substack.com/pub/hughphil...

An Organ, a Sultan — and Musical Diplomacy I appeared about this time last year on BBC Radio 3’s Sunday Feature, a programme that reminded me why music so often succeeds where formal diplomacy falters.

An Organ, a Sultan — and Musical Diplomacy
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Often, Good Diplomacy Is About Listening Without Prejudice On diplomacy, silence, and the discipline of attention

Often, Good Diplomacy Is About Listening Without Prejudice
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A Russian Church in Snow with a Man Riding a Sleigh - Sergei Lednev-Shchukin
20th Century

Read my Sussex Sleigh Ride playlist piece #winter #christmas #sussex

Beginning a Botanical Bilateral Mighty oaks from little acorns grow – Part 1

open.substack.com/pub/hughphil... this was a fortuitous meeting #botany #Tajikistan #Edinburgh please subscribe

Where I started Finding the inspiration to write The Singing Ambassador - A Tajik Story

open.substack.com/pub/hughphil... #Tajikistan

The Singing Ambassador | Substack The Singing Ambassador is former British Diplomat Hugh Philpott, who served as Ambassador to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Hugh now lives on the Sussex coast in England, where he is developing a career...

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And what a great show it was @patbrag.bsky.social @tyjeffries.bsky.social