In this episode, Jane Craigie and her Dad, Iain Craigie, look back into Iain's career in intelligence to hear his take on what is happening following the upheaval and displacement caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

This was recorded at the height of this summer's UK heatwave before Russia permitted the first shipment of grain from Ukraine. 

In this episode, Iain Craigie remembers his early life - in the 1940s and ‘50s in a little North Eastern Scottish village,  Kingston-on-Spey. The rich conversation with his daughter, Jane Craigie, covers a young boy’s relationships with nature, the long-lost shopkeepers and the ebb and flow, and immense freedom of living in a coastal village at the end, and immediately after World War II. If you love conversation, our natural environment and Scotland, we hope that you’ll enjoy this episode.

In this episode, Jane asks her Dad, Iain about his time in Ankara working for GCHQ. His post was senior, he was responsible for staff at the British Embassy in Ankara, and also 100 staff at the Black Sea site at Sinop.

The posting was at a pivotal time for the Middle East, just ahead of the first Gulf War. Arguably, the start of the current wave of unrest in the region. A key responsibility for Iain was regular liaison with the General of the Turkish Army.

There’s a lengthy delay between this and our last podcast... due to technology and the lack of support for Dad to fathom Zoom during the pandemic. But we’re back now...