Georgia Paterson Dargham
I grew up in a sweetly parochial corner of the south-west coast of England, where the beach was my main exploration ground, in fair weather and poor. There I learnt how to kick limpets off a rock with a welly in order to gouge the pale, tremulous flesh out of the shell for use as bait and how to get a grip on the ferocious little velvet swimming crab without being gripped back. Though my parents had more interest in my rockpool findings than my schooling, they gave me a journal when I was five, and I began exploring the world of words. In the same year, the death of a kindly great-uncle allowed us our first family trip abroad, to Paris. I gradually awoke to the realisation that there were many other domains to explore, both physically and linguistically.
After attending Exeter College, I moved to Paris at 18 to study French Language and Culture. A master in Media led to a job as a press analyst and abstract writer until life in France began to feel too sedate and I moved to Beirut, becoming self-employed by the same token. Moving from a nanny state to a DIY nation provides many reasons to laugh and to wonder. Ginger Beirut is a collection of short pieces on Lebanese life and culture as seen by an outsider. It aims to provide a few insights and a taste of life in this voluptuous, generous country.
Ginger Beirut has been selected as one of Lonely Planet’s top blogs and my articles are regularly featured on their site.
You can listen to my work for the BBC here and here.
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