Award-winning author based in Berlin, Germany.
Working on a book for Bodleian Library Press.
https://tempelhof.substack.com/
Co-author of Butterfly, the true story of Yusra Mardini, Syrian refugee, swimmer, and Olympian, the inspiration behind Netflix's The Swimmers.
Co-author of They Don't Teach This, a memoir by England football star and whistle-blower Eniola Aluko.
Books
Butterfly is the inspiring story of how one woman saved fellow refugees from drowning—and how she went on to become an Olympic swimmer. When young Syrian refugee Yusra Mardini realized her boat's engine shut down as she was traveling from Syria to Greece with other refugees, there was no hesitation: she dove into the water. Surfacing, she heard desperate prayers and sobbing from the passengers in the sinking boat above her. Between the waves, her elder sister Sarah screamed at her to...
From war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics, two young sisters embark on a harrowing journey as refugees, putting both their hearts and champion swimming skills to heroic use. Based on a true story. Directed by Sally El-Hosaini.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS* Eni Aluko: 102 appearances for England women's national football team. First female pundit on Match of the Day. UN Women UK ambassador. Guardian columnist. First class honors law degree. Now an inspirational author.
Reviews
Trained relentlessly by her father in Syria, Mardini helped steer a people-laden dinghy to safety, then competed in the Olympics
Three books relate the individual accounts of people caught up in events larger than themselves.
The extraordinary tale of a Syrian woman's journey from her war-torn country all the way to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil.
When the striker called out racism in the England camp, it ended her international career. She explains why the fight was worth it
For Eniola Aluko, the bleakest moment came not when Mark Sampson dropped her from the England side on the pretext of “un-Lioness behaviour”, or even when he told her to make sure her Nigerian relatives did not bring the Ebola virus to Wembley.
A look back on Eni Aluko's phenomenal career and life thus far ahead of the release of her book, They Don't Teach This.
Journalism
Berlin's disused Tempelhof airport is to temporarily house more than a thousand refugees, the city senate has confirmed, as the search for large-scale emergency accommodation in the German capital grows more frantic.
Many of those on board the Kindertransport trains to UK never saw their parents again
If you can remember it, you probably weren't there, as the old adage goes. What was true of the summer of love generation applies also to Berlin's 1990s techno scene, the subject of the city's latest blockbuster exhibition.
Malte Kleinwort, 46, never felt bad about flying. That's until last year, when Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg changed his mind. Now he is one of a growing number of Germans to abandon short-haul flights in favour of the train. "Before, I didn't feel any flight shame at all really," said Kleinwort, a research associate at the Ruhr University Bochum.
BERLIN (Reuters) - British artist and anti-surveillance activist James Bridle is illuminating Germany with artwork exploring the darkest state secrets, cover-ups and information blackouts. Bridle's "The Glomar Response", showing this month at the newly opened Nome gallery in Berlin, resonates in a country where revelations by former U.S.
Dinner for One sketch was instant hit when it aired in 1972 and has achieved cult status
A Berlin-based artist who put up billboards advertising fake real estate projects in protest against runaway property development received more than 200 calls from would-be investors who didn't get the joke. Three billboards appeared six weeks ago across Berlin advertising luxury new-build developments at in-demand locations. "Available 2021," the billboards state.
Chancellor also tells Christian Democrats she will not seek re-election as party chairwoman in December
It was the fastest-selling show the Victoria and Albert Museum has ever staged. But when the David Bowie Is exhibition moves to Berlin this summer, there will be a few notable tweaks. Bowie's cathartic years in the chrysalis of divided Berlin are counted as among the singer's most innovative.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s preferred successor, Armin Laschet, might have won the leadership of her center-right Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, but he faces an uphill battle to lead the country’s most powerful political force into a general election in September—the first of the post-Merkel era.
Derelict in appearance, the two-story detached building in an otherwise well-to-do suburb of Salzburg in Austria appears not to have been inhabited for years. The back garden is a neglected wilderness, overgrown with knee-high creepers and debris, overhanging, unpruned trees and blanketed in a mulsh of dead leaves.
Chick's sex can be determined before it hatches, potentially ending culling of billions of males
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s retirement plans collapsed last week when her hand-picked successor resigned. Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union is now searching for a new leader, even as it grapples with an identity crisis after shedding supporters to left-leaning and far-right parties.
Young CDU members are excited by a fresh start in Germany once the only leader they have known stands down
Angela Merkel sat through the German and Danish national anthems during a ceremony welcoming Denmark's prime minister to Berlin. The German chancellor reportedly requested the change in protocol a day after she was seen shaking in public for the third time in as many weeks.
Huge cache of documents published daily in December but came to light only on Thursday
Voters in the bellwether central state of Hesse seem keen to punish Angela Merkel at the ballot box
Voters abandon country's ruling parties in droves as Greens and AfD make gains
Chancellor's decision to retire brings predictably mixed response in Berlin
Dip in support for Christian Democrats and Social Democrats could spell danger for chancellor's grand coalition
German party's lurch to the right likely to benefit AfD and Greens in regional vote on Sunday
Angela Merkel has sacrificed key ministries to secure a coalition agreement with the Social Democrats - a breakthrough she hopes will end months of uncertainty for Europe's biggest economy. The new government promises to end austerity in Europe and introduce tougher immigration controls at home.
Nowhere in the world did the lessons of Russian interference in the U.S. election hit home as they did in Germany. In the aftermath of President Donald Trump's victory, Chancellor Angela Merkel repeatedly warned that foreign powers could also meddle in Germany's upcoming autumn election.
HEIDENAU, Germany (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned on Monday violent protests against refugees that erupted over the weekend in eastern Germany, blaming them on far-right extremists who were bent on spreading a "disgusting" message of hatred.
The lights were all out, the corridors were deserted. Only one computer screen was still glowing at Freiburg's Institute for Advanced Studies. Newly-arrived American academic Kristen Ghodsee was working late in her office. Then there was a knock at the door, and in came the institute's director.
German-Turkish lawyer was sent fax telling her to leave or risk her daughter being killed
US ambassador says revelations prove magazine guilty of institutional bias, as far-right groups seek to exploit the case
Donald Trump has warned America's trading partners that anyone who does business with Iran will not be doing business with the US, after his administration reimposed blanket sanctions. The US president described the new sanctions, which hit Iran's access to dollars, gold and precious metals, as "the most biting ever imposed".
There was a Russian Cossack choir, a horse-drawn carriage and a venue specialising in a Viennese fried chicken. But one thing about the wedding of the Austrian foreign minister, Karin Kneissl, stood out: among the guests was the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
The leader of Germany's Social Democrats has abandoned his ambition to be foreign minister, days after agreeing to form a coalition with Angela Merkel. Martin Schulz was told by his SPD party members that they would not back the deal to form a government if he took the job.
Protesters have taken to the streets in 14 German cities to show their anger with their government's handling of the Greek crisis, as opposition to the bailout deal appeared to be growing within Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat (CDU) party.
Josie Le Blond in Tbilisi Georgian activists have accused a pro-Russian group of planning a fake lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride march to provoke attacks from homophobes in an attempt to destabilise the country before the imminent conclusion of an EU association agreement.
At the headquarters of the Free Democrats in Berlin, all eyes were fixed on a big screen as the seconds counted down to the release of exit polls. Then a loud groan reverberated around the hall as the damning number of 4.7% flashed up, dashing the party's hopes of remaining in government.
The excitement on Fulda's University Square hinted at the imminent arrival of an A-list celebrity. Crowds jostled impatiently to pass through a security check, a total of 5,000 gathering in front of two big screens, some on picnic benches, others standing, while hundreds more watched from the roofs and windows of offices and apartment blocks.
In devotedly pro-European Germany, it is a radical message. In a packed beer hall meeting on the outskirts of Stuttgart, Roland Klaus tells scores of middle-aged, middle-class Germans what they want to hear. In short - no more bailouts. "We've got the possibility to stop this madness," the former financial TV journalist intones.
The third in our series of guides to Europe's alt cities takes us to a former GDR metropolis being revitalised by artists. The result is an ever-changing, regulation-defying mosaic of restaurants, galleries and clubs. Here, local people sift for the gems
"Merkel stop watching us" screamed a banner above a noisy group of protesters which forced Angela Merkel to raise her voice as she launched her election campaign. Barely concealing her irritation, the German chancellor struggled to drown out honking vuvuzelas, and chants of "hypocrite" and "liar", with promises of more of the same from a third term at the helm of Europe's biggest economy - jobs, stability and stronger growth.
A skull-and-crossbones glares out from a homemade sign. "No entry. Danger of death," it reads. For the first group of people arriving at a new state-run asylum seekers' facility in this central Swiss mountain village, the message is unambiguous.
Refugees
By Josie Le Blond in Hamburg, Germany | 18 February 2020 | Español | Français | عربي So when a teacher suggested he apply for an internship at the port, the Syrian refugee jumped at the chance. "That first day was astonishing," said the 21-year-old. "I was really motivated...
When Volkswagen - the world's largest automaker - offered Mastura Ekhlas a place on a programme that could lead to a permanent job, she knew it was the chance of a lifetime. She had arrived in Germany in 2013 as a refugee from Afghanistan.
On her way home, six men approached her on the street demanding money. When they found she had no cash, they knocked her unconscious. "When I woke up, they told me they were going to do something I'd never seen before," said Virginie, 39. "Then they brutalized me, one by one."
From one intolerable situation, they have found another. "Look at the conditions here, is this humane?" said Ibrahim, 49, on Wednesday. He gestured at the shelters he built from wood and plastic sheeting for himself and close relatives." Many of Ibrahim's neighbours in the improvised overspill camp known locally as the Olive Grove said they felt the same way.
If it felt like a prison cell, that is because it once was one, part of a notorious former prison in southern Amsterdam. After the prison closed in 2016, it become a successful pop-up hotel run by refugees, until it shut up shop a few weeks ago.
POTSDAM, Germany - English teacher Alaa Kassab believes her education saved her life and, after she arrived in Germany as a refugee from Syria, she was keen to get back into the classroom to pass on her language skills to the next generation.
"Rice is so profitable for me right now," says Queen, 34, who fled conflict in South Sudan and found refuge in Uganda as a young child in the early 1990s. "Those other crops I'm just planting to supplement the food we're given. But rice I'm using as my income-generating business."
Until recently, they would have had to travel over 30 kilometres to see a doctor. Now, this is the fourteenth baby delivered this week at the clinic in Mantapala Settlement, in north-western Zambia.
"I wanted security and a good, safe life for me and my family," says the former literature student, 33, who fled to Germany from Syria in 2015 and recently retrained as a bus driver with Berlin's transport network. "That's very important to me."
By Josie Le Blond and Gordon Welters in Berlin | 22 June 2017 | Français | عربي By sunset, a crowd has gathered to hear readings by Syrian and Levantine poets with accompanying German translations. It is standing room only.
The flimsy vessel, crammed with some 20 people, had just reached open water off the Turkish coast when the engine died. A dreadful silence followed. Yusra Mardini saw terror in the eyes of her fellow passengers as the inflatable dinghy began taking on water. Most of the others could not swim, but 17-year-old Yusra could.
The task is significant. Germany's Federal Labour Office says it advised 322,000 asylum-seekers and refugees looking for work in July alone. Many struggle with the language and missing paperwork and others find they must re-train and embark on a new career. For the determined, opportunities are there.
"It was no life there in Syria, we were all so scared all of the time. I just wanted peace, nothing else," says Syrian refugee Halima Taha, 30, who fled the war at home four years ago with her husband and three children.
The pair have found work with a sailmaker near the port of Kiel, repairing damaged sails and making sunshades, clothing and accessories from old sailcloth, poring over bolts of the hard-wearing fabric draped across wooden workbenches. Mohammed, who used to make curtains in Damascus, has adapted his skills to meet the demands of life on the Baltic coast.
Now the moment had come. In a nondescript temporary shelter in Serbia, her babies were to be born. However, it was not a simple birth. "It started with the pain," said Fatima, 28, sitting at the dining room table in a farmhouse in a village near Dresden.
By Josie Le Blond and Achilleas Zavallis in Lesvos, Greece | 27 February 2017 | Français | عربي "The doctors told me it's better on the mainland because my son will need more medical help," explained Falak, 40, who has been moved with her sons to a government-run shelter in the Greek city of Larissa.
By Josie Le Blond in Wesseling, Germany and Warda Aljawahiry in London, United Kingdom | 12 May 2017 | Français | عربي Armed with an extraordinary brain and an iron will, 18-year-old Nujeen is determinedly adjusting to her new life in Europe.
Since neighbouring European Union (EU) countries closed their borders in the spring of 2016 and started collective expulsions back into non-EU Serbia, the number of refugees and migrants stuck in the country has swelled from a few hundred to close to 8,000.
This chance meeting in the depths of a Berlin winter marked the start of a new phase in Syrian refugee Abdallah's life. Long a devotee of the traditional chanson-style arrangements of Tarab music, the trained singer had discovered a way to share memories of his lost homeland with his new host country.
BERLIN, Germany - A hush falls over the small group of visitors as it enters the cool, lofty hall filled with ancient stones. Museum guide Kefah Ali Deeb studies their expressions closely as they gaze at Syrian statues of lions, birds, scorpions and mysterious goddesses.
Even now, months after he and his family moved into a nearby apartment, the Syrian electrician returns to the site every day to help, as UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and its partners improve accommodation for 900 remaining residents.