Dr Fiona Hill is a leading foreign affairs advisor to a series of US Presidents, the UK government, and US National Security Council, who believes she has cracked the secret to success. As the daughter of a coal miner and midwife, Dr Fiona Hill 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 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 and part of the motivation of Forged in the North, she says, was to challenge the North-South imbalance. 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.”
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...’
But let’s leave the final thoughts to Dr Fiona Hill: “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.” She adds. “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 North 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