Barry Neild started his journalistic career reviewing sandwiches for a local newspaper in the dark shires of northern England, but soon graduated to tougher, if less tasty, assignments. Working for the BBC, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, Agence France-Presse and CNN, he has covered conflict in Afghanistan, espionage in China, the tsunami in Indonesia and the war in Iraq where — after being robbed at gunpoint, chased by helicopter and pumped full of horse tranquilizers — he wished he was back on the sandwich beat. Since 2005, he has been living and working in London, a city he can no longer afford to live in, but no longer bear to leave.