(Not jazz but of local interest - Lance)
A leading foreign affairs advisor to a series of US Presidents, the UK government, and US National Security Council, has cracked the secret to success.
Dr Fiona Hill, the daughter of a coal miner and midwife, is no stranger to success herself - the former White House aide and Senior Fellow at Washington DC’s Brookings Institution is considered one of the world’s top experts on Russia and Putin.
But success, she says, lies closer to home: the North East to be exact.
Born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, Hill launches her new short podcast series, Forged in the North, at this year’s Durham Book Festival in October.
Hill – who is also Chancellor of Durham University and a defence advisor to the UK’s Labour government – chatted to some of the region’s most successful minds in politics, the Arts, sport, and business, to work out the secrets of their phenomenal success.
Her guests include the music icon Sting, Yale historian Paul Kennedy, author Lee Hall (Billy Elliot), screenwriter Peter Straughan (Wolf Hall/Conclave), North East Mayor Kim McGuinness, Dragon Den’s entrepreneur Sara Davies, Brendan Foster, who founded the Great North Run, and Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson.
Fiona Hill said: “The idea behind it was inspired by my memoir, There is Nothing for you Here, about how growing up in County Durham and how the social fabric of North East life in the 80’s supported my ambitions in education, travel and social mobility.”
Fiona added: “What Forged in the North is trying to do is put the spotlight on a region that is normally only in the headlines for something going wrong: child poverty, the lowest life expectancy, worst nutrition. But the North East is home of the Industrial Revolution - literally the engines of prosperity. 200 years ago, it was the forefront of innovation, and we’re saying, there’s still a lot of potential for innovation. This podcast is learning from all these amazing, successful people who were forged in the North.”
One of the common denominators of her guests was their sense of roots and home as a driver to success.
Fiona explained: “Sara Davis talks about the fact that she knows who she is and where she's from. Her biggest inspirations are her mother and her grandmother. I have the same feeling that my biggest inspirations are my family and my friends and the people around me growing up. I have a very strong sense of who I am and where I'm from and what I'm about.”
Part of the motivation of Forged in the North, she says, was to challenge the North-South imbalance.
Fiona said: “You've got all of these left behind regions in the United Kingdom, where London tends to dominate the whole discussion, and every road leads to London.”
Hill found the North excels in ‘soft-power’ - now touted as a driver of success.
“There’s YouGov research that shows the North East has the strongest sense of regional identity in the UK after Scotland. When they dug down, the reason why was people. There’s a sense of solidarity that’s been forged in adversity. Everyone’s thrown all kinds of rubbish at the North historically; but it has a resilience.”
As well as a sense of place, values and belonging, another common denominator for success was local investment in social capital and in communities. Her guests span age groups, with Sting (73), writers Lee Hall (58), Peter Straughan (57) and Mayor Kim McGuinness (40).
Fiona said: “There was a lot of investment in people of my generation [Hill is 59], especially in Arts and culture. Peter Straughan and Lee Hall got started with enterprise grants and through locally funded theatres. As a result of that investment, they have gone on to be massively successful.”
Hill got a grant from the Durham Miners’ Association to take a Russian language course to pursue her ambition to go to university, as well as a grant from the local education authority to study.
Of the younger generation on the podcast, Kim McGuinness and Sara Davis had to ‘make their own luck;’ Sara Davis used her savings to start a business, turning £5,000 into a £20m enterprise.
Fiona said: “Kim is now looking at the idea of local government being a patron: Can we get investment funds? How can the local combined authority give seed money? How can government catapult talent?”
North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said: "This podcast celebrates the North East’s incredible legacy as home to some of the UK’s most successful people in sports, business, and the creative industries. It shows how talented individuals have transformative power, but also asks how we create what Fiona called the infrastructure of opportunity to let more succeed.
“It’s my vision the North East becomes a cultural powerhouse, and this important podcast shines a light on how with the right support, talent can truly thrive. Funding in our region’s art sector has been outpaced by the south for some time. I’m determined to fix that cultural chasm and the cycle of regional inequality, positioning the North East as a strong contender in the UK economy.”
Fiona says the UK should ‘lean in’ to the value of social capital.
“Being from the North East grounds you, it’s an anchor, a solid base with a strong sense of what’s right and wrong and a clear perspective and values. Social capital means those who succeed invest back. Sting has said recently in his interviews backing Gateshead’s Baltic that the North has been neglected and there needs to be a bit more national attention. It’s just giving people a chance. He is miles away, travelling around the world constantly, but feels a very strong affinity to the North East.”
The North East has shaped her own career.
“The fact the region changed dramatically, from being the forefront of pretty much everything, has shaped my enquiry into the world: what does that imply for the rest of the world? What pitfalls lie ahead? How do you overcome that? How do you dig deep? That’s what I’m trying to think about. How you make societies more resilient? I keep coming back to these lessons from Noth East England.”
All episodes of the Forged in the North podcast series will be available to listen on 10 October on all the leading podcast platforms.
Fiona Hill will discuss her podcast Forged in the North at the Durham Book Festival on Sunday 12 October with Northumberland internationally bestselling author, LJ Ross, and Romani storyteller, Richard O’Neill.
To book, visit www.durhambookfestival.com
About Durham Book Festival
Durham Book Festival is a Durham County Council festival produced by New Writing North with support from Durham University and Arts Council England. New Writing North leads the development of creative writing and reading in the North of England, identifying talent, creating career-changing opportunities, and ensuring excellent writing finds great audiences.
Durham Book Festival - New Writing North
About New Writing North
Writing talent is everywhere. But opportunities are not. That is why New Writing North exists. To identify and nurture talent. To inspire a love for creative writing and reading. To create lifechanging chances for people across the North. Through our programmes, events, and activities, we find and support talented people of all ages and backgrounds to access creative opportunities and to enable them to flourish. Find out more at www.newwritingnorth.com
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