.Hisham Matar was writing his first novel, doing odd jobs and struggling for money when he agreed to star in a one-man play, despite having no previous acting experience.

Little did he know, it would lead him on the path to being published.

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More from my piece here…

The Economist Excellent Simon Akam on how the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) made serious mistakes over corruption cases in UK Susan Hawley Robert Barrington often due to unwise leadership and confrontation with U.S. Department of Justice Spotlight on Corruption

One hell of a paragraph in the lower reaches of this fascinating (if a bit one-sided) article about the failures of the Serious Fraud Office. economist.com/1843/2024/05/1…

“Conducting a vast international corruption racket and keeping records like a bank is unheard of.”

For once Britain’s Serious Fraud Office seemed to have a slam-dunk case. Then America’s Justice Department showed up. From 1843 magazine econ.st/44EsS6Z

More from my Serious Fraud Office (SFO) piece The Economist

New episode of Always Take Notes with The Pulitzer Prizes winner Hisham Matar

New episode of Always Take Notes featuring Paul Theroux - on travel writing, V.S. Naipaul and literary London in the 1970s...

Thanks Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd for having me on for a wide-ranging conversation on the impacts of AI, my motivations and reporting on big tech. Your podcast guests were an inspiration when I first started writing my book!

NEW EPISODE: Co-founder and publisher Oneworld Publications Juliet Mabey (@Jule9) speaks to Simon and Rachel about three of her authors winning The Booker Prizes, the power of #BookTok and why she always invites authors to have tea with the whole Oneworld team.

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The art of landing a good punchline and revealing whodunnit at the end of a novel are more closely related than you might think, as bestselling crime novelist Jo Nesbø tells us in our latest episode.

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New episode of Always Take Notes with Norwegian crime novelist phenomenon Jo Nesbø....

Jérémie Heitz has pushed freeriding to breathtaking, beautiful new extremes. But as the risks get bigger, so the questions do, too.

On the precipice of fear. By Simon Akam via The Guardian Long Read theguardian.com/sport/2024/jan…

Thanks for your kind words

Precipice of fear: the freerider who took skiing to its limits, by Simon Akam theguardian.com/sport/2024/jan…

Thanks David

Thankyou!

Thanks for your interest!