LRN No. 45: Becky Burke is back

Plus: why you shouldn't let Somali pirates influence your salary negotiations

I’ve been overwhelmed by the response to the last LRN about Becky Burke, my friend, neighbour and, for two and a half years, the person who entertained my kids after school.

Becky went to the USA on a solo backpacking trip, only to be frisked, shackled and imprisoned by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement when she tried to leave the country. I’m pleased to say that she’s safe back home with her family now, after a total of 19 days of incarceration. Thank you so much to all those who read and engaged with her story.

I visited Becky at her parents’ home in Wales on Monday. Given all that she’s been through, she’s doing surprisingly OK.

We sat in the garden, in the sunshine, for four hours, while she told me everything she went through in America. I still cannot believe that this is possible, and that it has happened to someone I know and love so well, in a country I thought I knew. She arrived in the USA in early January, in the last days of the Biden administration. Her story is a snapshot of what America has become since then.

I’ve written about Becky’s story in a piece that’s going to be published in Guardian Saturday on 5th April, along with some of the drawings Becky managed to smuggle out of the detention centre.

She wants to shine a light on the experiences of the women who shared her dorm in Tacoma, Washington - women who have little hope of experiencing freedom any time soon. She is working on a comic that will tell the story of what happened to her, and the women she shared 19 days with.

In honour of the paperback publication of The Price of Life this week, I am going to share a story of how I became a little too immersed in the material when I was writing it.

Chapter 10 is about ransoms. It tells the story of Stephen Collett, and how he secured the release of his sister, Rachel Chandler, after she had been kidnapped by Somali pirates. To understand the delicate art of kidnap and ransom negotiations, I interviewed Anja Shortland, Professor of Political Economy at King’s College London, who specialises in how to do deals with baddies.

Determining the price of a hostage starts with a number the kidnapper will have plucked out of thin air, Anja says, a figure beyond their wildest dreams. ‘It gives you an insight into who you’re talking to, that person’s mindset and what a huge amount of money is for them. If someone asks for a thousand dollars, you know you’re talking to a kid,’ she says, with another grin.

At precisely the same time that I was writing these words, I was negotiating my contract with the BBC for what would become the first series of The Gift. For the previous 15 years, my broadcast agent had these discussions on my behalf, but I was now doing it myself, and I had no idea where to start.

When the BBC asked me what my rate was, Anja’s words were ringing in my ears. If someone asks for a thousand dollars, you know you’re talking to a kid.

Clearly, negotiation is about going in big. So I plucked a number out of thin air. A big number. The kind of number that would show them who they were talking to. That they were not talking to a kid. A number that was four times what I was expecting they would actually pay me.

I emailed that number over to the BBC. And no one replied. For two weeks.

I eventually received a very carefully worded email, expressing the BBC’s strong desire to work with me, but explaining that I would need to look at that number again.

By this time, I was no longer immersed in the world of Somali pirates. I came back with a lower figure. The rest is history. Fortunately, no one has ever spoken of this to me again.

Things that have caught my eyes and ears:

• felt both entertained and very brainy after a seeing a screening of the film Network followed by a live recording of David Runciman and Helen Lewis discussing it for a forthcoming episode of Past, Present, Future, the most thought-provoking podcast around

• enjoyed Victor Hugo (yes, that Victor Hugo)’s dreamy ink drawings of castles and octopuses at the Royal Academy

• was impressed by the cinematography and storytelling of The Twister, a stunning documentary about the tornado that ripped through Joplin, Missouri, in 2011

• if you watched Adolescence (of course you watched Adolescence) and are as nerdy as I am, you will love the most recent episode of The Rest is Entertainment, where the director and director of photography explain how they managed to pull it off. Strong recommend