While London's Cockneys delight in telling you they were born “within the sound of Bow bells”Martin Hedges' international yearnings began as he was lulled to sleep by the sound of ...view moreWhile London's Cockneys delight in telling you they were born “within the sound of Bow bells”Martin Hedges' international yearnings began as he was lulled to sleep by the sound of jets taking off at Heathrow.He is a business journalist though he latterly took a PR role when hired by the French government, trying to convince its oldest enemy, the British, to invest in business in France. The high points of his career include being hit with a golf club by Ted Turner and introducing Boomtown Rats frontman to British press baron Robert Maxwell with a “Bob, this is Bob...” Blackadder-styleHe trained as a lawyer, though he never practised. He trained as a private pilot though he thought that him flying a plane was like giving the keys to the highway to the worst learner in driver's ed.He lives in Acton, not that strip mine of the soul in West London, but a leafy village in the ancient English county of Suffolk, where the sound of woodpeckers on 'fully automatic, safety's off' attacking insects under the bark punctuates the relentlessly demented lowing of wood pigeons.view less