Since leaving my role as director of transition and CEO of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (previously the Press Complaints Commission) in 2014, after two-and-a-half challenging years, I have worked freelance on all kinds of projects. I have acted as rapporteur on a number of major reports, done a lot of speech-writing, and regularly provide top-level strategic advice to major national and international clients, having established a new Policy Unit at the international, commercial law firm DAC Beachcroft LLP.

The PCC/IPSO role (in common with almost all my previous work) did, of course, bring me into close contact with the world of top-level politics. I once ran for Parliament, but my interests and enthusiasms extend far beyond the confines of Westminster. I am a West Ham season ticket holder and was an enthusiastic Sunday league footballer before niggling injuries did for me.

I am very interested (and involved) in music too; I frequently write features for "Gramophone" magazine, both in the magazine itself and as a blogger on the website. My most recent article was about Smetana’s Má vlast, the iridescent “national tone poem” of the Czech lands (my mother’s motherland). I have also written several books (biographies and history books) and, for BBC Worldwide, have been a “talking head” in several short films, on subjects as diverse as Magna Carta and Music Hall.

My biggest commitment, however, is to theatre and, specifically, to playwriting. As of March 2024, I have just completed my fifth play. The first four were all performed professionally in London, but this one, “Party Games”, has been commissioned by the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, a powerhouse producing venue. It goes off on a UK tour in May-June 2024, with a fabulous cast. The relevant dates and links are below. 

I now have several more exciting stage projects in various stages of development, including a piece of musical theatre in pre-production.

I was recently re-elected as a trustee of the Concert Artistes' Association, a small private members’ club for people in the theatrical world, allied to a charity for performers in need and based in Covent Garden. I am a super-assessor for the Off West End Awards and a trustee of the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation.