XCity – City University Journalism Department Magazine 2010

From Basra with Love Pt.1: Simon Tisdall’s wife tells of married life with a foreign correspondent

Simon Tisdall is assistant editor and a foreign affairs columnist at The Guardian. He recently covered conflicts in Darfur, Eritrea and Thailand. During Simon’s time as The Guardian’s US editor, he and his wife Alison moved their family to America.  Here, Alison speaks to Natalie Woolman about her experiences.

When we first went to Washington I didn’t know many people. I had two small children so that kept me busy, but I made friends quickly because you have to. The first Gulf War stands out in my memory because Simon was away for a long time and I didn’t hear from him very much. He had to find an AT&T phone to file stories to The Guardian so to talk to me on the phone was virtually impossible. I got a call once a week if I was lucky.

When we were in Washington you couldn’t get The Guardian  until a day late and I had to drive to a special newsagent to get it. Of course he wouldn’t always have something in it because that’s not how news works. But, if there was a story in, it was some comfort – you knew he was alive because he’d written something two days ago. There weren’t many copies in the shop and I was always worried that if I got there a bit late they wouldn’t have one.

I also remember Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Simon rung me and said he was deliberately making his way to the eye of the storm. I couldn’t picture what it was like in the Gulf [War] because I have no first-hand experience of what happens in war situations but I could imagine the hurricane: stuff flying around, trees bending over and the sea spilling into the town.

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Read other partners of war correspondents:
Janine di Giovanni and Bruno Girodon
Kate White and Oliver Poole

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I think there is a big element of trusting that your other half is going to be sensible. Even when he’s been in the scariest of places, I don’t bite my nails and fret: I have this trust that he knows what he’s doing and he’s not going to take any unnecessary risks, although I know that there are some things that he can’t control.

One of the best pieces of advice I could give to someone who has married a foreign correspondent is to make sure you’ve got a focus for your life other than just where your partner is. I got involved in the local community, which was only possible because I was in an English-speaking country. Many people stick to the diplomatic and journalistic circles, but my friends were mainly American. I wasn’t with people worrying about where their husbands or partners were.

Related posts:

1. From Basra with Love Pt.3: War correspondent Oliver Poole’s girlfriend tells how it feels to play the waiting game
2. From Basra with Love Pt.2: Janine di Giovanni and husband Bruno Girodon
3. Congo correspondent honoured for dispatches