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 · 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 · 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 · 16/02/2025

I could have gone on for many more episodes. I think my drama would centre on the brilliant but over-worked, under-appreciated and under-compensated librarians: Lewis and James Hertslet in series one. Series two could follow Lewis’ son Sir Edward Hertslet.

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

A lighter tone for episode 4: the housekeeper’s dog causes havoc in the office, barking at breakfast time and doing its business on the floor of the Permanent Under-Secretary Henry “Pumpy” Addington.

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

Episode 3: A fire breaks out, threatening the Foreign Office library and an elderly German translator working on the top floor. It’s put out thanks to the bravery and quick-thinking of the clerks, maids and guards. Manuscripts are flung into the street to save them from the fire.

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

Episode 2: Ms Glover is short of money after the death of her husband and decides to open a bar in the basement of the Foreign Office. The Chief Clerk dismisses her on suspicion of serving “unauthorised persons”.

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

Episode 1: Class tensions within the Queen’s Messengers lead to a fight breaking out between Mr Wright and Mr Fricker. Mr Wright throws a jug at Mr Fricker’s head before Mr Crotch steps in to separate the adversaries.

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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 · 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 · 06/01/2025

Beautiful. Not the best photo but this is the Shakespeare Window at Boston College, by Earl Sanborn (1928)

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

8. Making Peace My final choice for 2024 is George Mitchell’s engrossing account of the negotiations that led up to the Good Friday Agreement. A riveting read, and a great prompt for reflecting on what makes negotiations successful.

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

7. The Last Hurrah Enjoyed this fictionalised portrait of politics in 1950s Boston. Mayor Frank Skeffington is a fantastic central character. Must dig out the film one day.

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

6. Empire Falls The most contemporary of all the novels on my 2024 list. A richly-drawn account of life in a small blue-collar Maine town. One of the more surprising endings of any book I read this year.

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

5. The World According to Garp It’s of its time (published 1978), but I loved the inventiveness and energy of this novel. Tried the Hotel New Hampshire afterwards but it didn’t grab me in the same way.

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

4. Common Ground. The story of 1960s/70s Boston, told through three families. The scale of the research that went into this book is incredible. Must have taken thousands of hours of interviews with the families.

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

3. The Scarlet Letter. One of the classic novels of Puritan New England. It’s a gripping story but also tackles some big themes: faith, hope, love.

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

2. The City State of Boston I have dipped in and out of this over the year. A great history of Boston - particularly strong on its intellectual and economic history I thought.

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

1. We Have Always Lived in the Castle. My book of 2024. An enchanting, unsettling novel. Also has one of the best opening paragraphs in fiction.

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

The Royal Artillery asks the Foreign Office to forward Volume XIII of the Minutes of the Minutes of the Proceedings of the R.A. Institution, Woolwich to the French, Danish, Russian, Prussian, Netherlands and Swiss Governments

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

Monsieur Millot, a Frenchman, writes asking for a book: “Le Catalogue de la Chancellerie de votre Maison en Angleterre”, enclosing two Francs

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

A German man called Ertel in Dresden writes to say that he has received 100 Marks enclosed in a letter written by another German in England, but without an address.

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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

For many years, we thought that the Consulate was established in 1817, misled by this note from 1961. Glad to have restored Macdonogh to his rightful place as the first Consul here.

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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

Three months later, Churchill told US Ambassador John Winant that he had some other lines “which are less well known, but which seem apt and appropriate to our fortunes tonight”. He then quoted the final two verses from Arthur Clough’s “Say not the Struggle nought Availeth”

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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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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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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

Stumbled onto this account a few months ago in Peacekeeping 1919, Nicolson’s interesting account of the peace negotiations in Paris.

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