iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Just discovered that no one on here has ever mentioned Charles Thayer - author of this absolutely wild diplomatic memoir It’s almost enough to start me posting again.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

Behold the summer tomato harvest from the residence back garden. One year away from full self sufficiency I reckon.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Really enjoying this book. Struck last night by this paragraph about how the US Ambassador to London during WW2 liked his team to present economic data to him: “Give it to me in the form of shoes, in the form of clothing”

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Felt compelled to come on here and say that if you are in the US or Canada and have a chance to see this Pulp tour, don’t hesitate. The most fun (and strangely emotional) evening I’ve had for ages. Jarvis still has it.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Such sad news. These are three of our family favourites. I spent many happy hours having these read to me when I was a kid, and now reading them to my children. Hard to imagine how much joy Alan Ahlberg brought into the world over his lifetime.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Latest in my New England literary journey: A Separate Peace by John Knowles (1959). Beautifully written coming of age novel set in a New Hampshire boarding school. Seemed like just the sort of novel that ends up being assigned to teenage English students. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Checked the baseball score before the cricket score. Wondering if I’m still qualified to represent my country abroad.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Learnt today that the first official UK celebration of US Independence Day took place on 4 July 1918. The Stars and Stripes flew above Parliament and Westminster Abbey and King George V joined thousands of spectators to watch an Army-Navy baseball game at Stamford Bridge. 🇬🇧 🇺🇸

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

1961. The Foreign Office pneumatic tube room. I guess the novelty of launching messages into the tubes wore off pretty quickly

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Latest stop in my New England literary journey: Arundel by Kenneth Roberts. Tells the story of Benedict Arnold’s march to Quebec in 1775.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Took the kids to visit the magnificently bonkers Ponyhenge near Lincoln MA One of the little guys came with a story. Godspeed Wonder-Horse.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Slowly making progress on my shelf of British ambassadors to the US. Lord Lyons (ambassador during the civil war) biography is best so far

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

One of the saddest scenes in modern life is kids in their swimming class excitedly looking up to check their parents are watching, but mum and dad are too busy staring at their phones to even notice.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

On International Women’s Day, here are three recommended reads on the history of women in diplomacy. Any other recommendations?

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Latest on the New England reading list. Not sure a chapter a night before bed is the best recipe for a night of peaceful dreams.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

After six months in Boston, I think I may finally be pronouncing Fanueil Hall, Scituate and Bowdoin properly.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Just finishing off this wonderful domestic history of the Victorian Foreign Office. Never have I read a book more deserving of being made into a period TV drama. In case Netflix are reading, some thoughts on the first couple of episodes:

Book cover: “Servants of Diplomacy: A Domestic History of the Victorian Foreign Foreign Office” by Keith Hamilton

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Love the idea of converting a spare room in an ambassador’s residence into a studio for visiting artists. www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...

thetimes.com

Nick Elam obituary: British diplomat who promoted the arts

Adviser to Lord Soames in Rhodesia and later ambassador to Luxembourg

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

“A frightful day in which everyone lays hand on every box they can find, crams into it all the worst and most complicated files, and throws them at my head” From the diaries of Foreign Office Permanent Under-Secretary Sir Alexander Cadogan, 84 years ago today.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

If I ever write a book I hope my author photo has the same energy as E B White’s on the dust jacket of One Man’s Meat.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

One of the nice things about going on a new overseas posting is that it provides a ready-made reading project. So my reading list in 2024 has been all about New England. Here are eight of the highlights, in no particular order (apart from the first one).

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

What a Christmas treat. My favourite books podcast and one of the quintessential New England novels. Death. The self. Nature. Bob Dylan. Burt Reynolds. Christmas cracker jokes. All the good stuff. 🎄

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Danae Dholakia @danaedholakia.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

British Diplomats often stand lost in the beauty and significance of Holbein’s Ambassadors (which is handily just down the road from our HQ). This brilliant thread explains it 👇 Thanks @davidclay.bsky.social for drawing my attention to it

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Reposted by David Clay

Danae Dholakia @danaedholakia.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

One of the great joys of a life in diplomacy is the opportunity to learn languages. Although I wouldn’t describe myself as a naturally gifted linguist, I’m currently deep into studying my seventh and though it might be helpful to share what I find useful (and get some tips in return!)

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Reading a biography of Lord Pauncefote - the first UK Ambassador to the US - at the moment. Genuinely surprised by the trivial issues that came across his desk as Foreign Office Permanent Under-Secretary in the 1880s, apparently before the invention of delegation. 🧵

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

1949 Foreign Office advice for junior diplomats heading off to a job in the US: “To appear superior is the eighth deadly sin. Let Mr and Mrs John Bull be their natural selves and never, never behave as if their name was Mr and Mrs Cholmondeley Haugh-Haugh.”

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

If I carry on accumulating these at this rate, I should have enough to build a small fort by the time I leave Boston. (Great biography btw)

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

A bit outside my usual lane but aren’t these stained windows (by Irish artist Richard King) at Boston College absolutely stunning?

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Happy 234th birthday to the British Consulate in Boston On this day in 1790, George Washington signed the exequatur agreeing to the appointment of Thomas Macdonogh as Consul within Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire. He was the first British Consul appointed in the US. 🧵

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

On the 150th anniversary of Churchill’s birth I thought I’d share a small exchange of poetry between Churchill and FDR In Jan 1941, FDR wrote to Churchill with an extract from Longfellow’s poem “The Building of the Ship” saying “this verse applies to you people as it does to us” 🧵

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Danae Dholakia @danaedholakia.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Thanks Evie - very helpful! Perhaps you might add all the lovely current and former British diplomats in my own fledgling starter pack go.bsky.app/LFoxg2C

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

New long read from my (much) better half.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Former UK Ambassador to the US Sir Robin Renwick died this month. Highly recommend his history of the UK-US relationship, especially for my fellow British diplomats working in the US. Some pretty heavyweight endorsements on the back cover.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Currently reading my way through New England fiction. Loved this collection of short stories by Ben Shattuck. Particularly enjoyed the way the stories switched from century to century. In the market for any other recommendations.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 10/02/2024

This opening sentence of John Cheever’s 1953 short story “O Youth and Beauty!” Just keeps going and going. I make it 190 words. Surely one of the longest opening sentences in literature?

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Peter Ricketts @lordrickettsp.bsky.social · 20/12/2023

Highly recommend this oral history by Sir Geoffrey Adams, who was at the core of 🇬🇧diplomacy for 40 yrs. Full of great detail and colour. Part of the brilliant British Diplomatic Oral History Programme curated by Churchill College Cambridge Archive Centre oa.churchillarchives.libnova.com/view/15834

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 02/12/2023

This is every bit as strange, haunting and beautiful as everyone says. Completely in awe of the imagination that can conjure up a character like Merricat.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 27/11/2023

I enjoyed this from Trollope on the power of the wrongdoer: “A man in the right relies easily on his rectitude and therefore goes about unarmed. His very strength is his weakness. A man in the wrong knows that he must look to his weapons; his very weakness is his strength…” (1/2)

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 20/11/2023

I know I’m not the first to say this, but the first paragraph of We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson takes some beating.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 11/11/2023

On 11 November 1918, Harold Nicolson was working in the Foreign Office basement preparing for the Paris Peace Conference. Just before 1100, he called in to the Chief Clerk’s office to order a tin box for his papers. He strolled to the window and looked out over Downing St.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 04/11/2023

Great to welcome @timdowse.bsky.social to the small but select group of diplomats and ex-diplomats on here. Follow for insights from decades of experience in the Foreign Office and Cabinet Office.

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 24/10/2023

Three days late to the news that the team from my favourite books podcast have arrived here

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 17/10/2023

I’ve been reading a bit about Martti Ahtisaari’s remarkable career this evening. Having read a few impenetrable peace treaties in my time, this passage about the need for focus and clarity in peace processes made me smile ⬇️

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David Clay @davidclay.bsky.social · 02/10/2023

Looking forward to these diaries which cover Nicholas Henderson’s time as ambassador to Poland (1969-72), West Germany (1972-75), France (1975-79) and the US (1979-82).

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