Your diary is very poignant in some places such as when you're describing some of the destruction...
Yes, I saw a lot that was quite depressing. Not surprising given what the country’s been through over the past 30 years and neighbours being dragged out of houses and taken off to be tortured. Brutality in every shape and form including bombs and missiles. Quite extraordinary. The country could be quite rich, and there’s lots of quite bright, intelligent middle class people there. There’s always a plus and a minus, the plus being talking to very articulate guys like a student in Mosul and his friend but finding certainly in their case they just wanted to get out of Iraq. What they wanted to study, what they wanted to know about, just couldn’t be found in their own country. I thought that was very sad.
The south is very difficult for us to come to terms with. It's run by Shia militias and for them the religious discipline is the main thing, that’s what’s important to them, So you just see places like lovely old houses in Basra just rotting away because no one really knows why they’d bother to keep those up. They’re getting in the way, they’re old stuff, lets get on. But Baghdad in particular is having quite a little Renaissance culturally with buildings being generally well looked after by people who care.
Then, very close to the end of your trip, you come across the Garden of Eden… or is it?
Yes, I never quite believed in that story, and I definitely don’t now! The thing about the Garden of Eden area is that it’s where the two rivers meet, so it was quite significant for us. But there’s this little area where the Tree of Knowledge sits in the middle of a concrete block. It had a little gift shop that, quite bizarrely, had Father Christmases on its shelves. It was utterly unspectacular, but imagine what it would look like if someone in the West had the franchise to the Garden of Eden! Fortunately, there were no figures in fig leaves.
Looking back, what was the biggest surprise to you?
How the country continues to function after everything that’s happened to it for so long, and to do so despite the chaos. In Baghdad, where there are no markings on the roads, it’s complete mayhem yet no one crashes into anyone. The cities buzz with enormous numbers of people, but I didn’t see any aggression out on the streets. So, I think that my biggest surprise was that Iraq could and should be a pleasant place to live.
The other surprise was conquering my vertigo on the minaret in Samarra, and even getting to the top. It’s bad enough going up there, because you’re going round the outside of the building and the handrail is on the inside. To get to the very top – which is unprotected and some 200 feet (60m) above the ground – and be expected to do a piece to camera from there was terrifying.
I was able to get through the first bit and then I suddenly felt comfortable. I thought: what a wonderful place to be, looking out over the heart of Biblical Iraq, with Abraham and all these figures having been born in this area. People have been walking up this minaret for over 1,000 years; and from it I could see the Tigris below and how dependent Iraq is on this great river. To not feel like I was going to fall off at any moment: that was a great feeling.
You say in a postscript that you would go back to see some of the locals you met. After all you saw, was it the people who made the biggest impression on you?
It always is. There are the ones that smile at you professionally, because they have to. And then there are the people we’re lucky enough to meet who are just living their lives; they have families or are studying, and to hear their stories is very important. The only caveat being that women are virtually invisible in Iraq; I can’t begin to comprehend that in any shape or form.
I’d love to go back to see what its people make of it in five years’ time. If they can form a government that can represent the majority of the people, and invest the money well and wisely, then I think Iraq has a great future. But it could go either way.
Please note: The FCDO advises against all travel to Iraq.