Welcome to Amaranth!

I love Mark dearly, but he can be awfully hard work sometimes...

Perhaps I should introduce myself first though. My name is Jessica, and I'm a friend of Mark's from the old country. I live here, with my husband, Emperor Ludwig XIV, and I occasionally reappear in Mark's life when he shows signs of needing my help. Mark has asked me to add some glamour to his blog which, I'm told, tends towards the bureaucratic which, for a politician, is somewhat odd. It shouldn't come as a tremendous surprise though, because whilst bureaucracy is terribly worthy and really quite valuable, it tends to lack sparkle.

I have the good fortune to have a life filled with excitement, mingling with the international political elite, whitewater rafting at World Championship level, madrigal singing and various good works. My family are a curious collection of former South American junta members, vicious sociopaths and eccentric philosophers but all of us care quite deeply for Mark. And so I will be contributing to 'Liberal Bureaucracy' from time to time, sometimes to explain (and Mark does require quite a lot of explaining), sometimes to comment on world affairs, and sometimes simply to entertain. I'll also introduce you to the rest of the family here in Amaranth as time permits...

Time for that evening glass of rakia I had promised myself before the Bruckner concert...