About Olivia

Olivia studied philosophy and political theory at Edinburgh — which gave her a way of engaging with arguments directly and following them wherever they lead, regardless of where you thought the evening was going. She came to Amsterdam on a policy research fellowship and decided the city suited her. That was three years ago. She is British in the Edinburgh sense: genuinely engaged, dry when it's earned, and completely without the need to fill silences that don't need filling. She reads widely, thinks clearly, and has the quality — unusual and immediately recognisable — of making you feel that what you just said was worth saying. Travel is where she is at her best — new cities, new contexts, the logistics of a good trip handled with the competence of someone who has actually done it. For international events, for a weekend in Paris or Vienna, for any evening that should go somewhere intellectually rather than simply pass pleasantly — Olivia is rare company. She speaks English, Dutch, French, and German with precision. The fellowship ended; the city and the people she met here kept her. That says something.

Where Olivia travels