The "spy" who came to dinner

From Chopin on the piano to Neil Diamond on the guitar, from identifying country club "mafiosi" to international spies and spooks, not even a sudden downpour could dampen the spirits of the two dozen gathered for dinner at Bobby de Ocampo’s lovely Vigan style house in Greenhills to welcome new British Council director Andrew Picken and his wife Janet.

We had to ask, of course: Do we address him as Sir Andrew? Oh no, he quickly corrected. Although he has an OBE after his name, he isn’t a knight–not yet anyway, we believe–so there is no "Sir" before his name. What would he have to do to get knighted and be a Sir? "Being a Beatle would help," he quipped.

For sure, Andrew has done a lot to promote British culture and interests abroad. He has been with the British Council for a good 20 years; his last posting was in Islamabad, Pakistan. The Pickens have been in Manila not quite two months, but both of them have jumped right in to life in our city. "The traffic is nothing like its reputation," he asserts, and proves it by showing up just a few minutes after he calls to let our host know that they were still in traffic and would be late. Andrew looks snazzy in a barong in his first picture in UK Link. Janet is taking history classes with the Museum Volunteers of the Philippines and teaches English to youth in Tondo with the Australia-New Zealand Association, not to mention visiting Marikina and other places whose names she cannot quite remember or pronounce (Tagaytay is one of them).

The British Council in the Philippines is one of the most active foreign outposts in the country, with programs in education particularly English language proficiency and teaching, public diplomacy and governance, and especially in arts and culture where it actively sponsors exchanges of and interaction among artists in the fields of theater, dance, music (classical and contemporary), visual arts, literature and film, as well as helping with the move to organize and develop the creative industry in the country, since Britain is recognized as a pioneer in the field.

In his latest book spymaster John le Carre hints that the British Council originally acted as a spy agency, which certainly makes things a lot more exciting. But Andrew is quick to disclaim any covert agenda for his work here, and emphatically disavows any ties past or present with MI-6, despite the fact that we were all thrilled at having sat at table with a real live spy, colleague of James Bond no less, and just as dapper. His name is Picken–Andrew Picken, OBE.