» I am very honoured to be invited to be President of the Jury of the European Book Prize.I grew up in a Europhile household – both my parents were teachers of French – and consider myself firstly English, secondly European, and only thirdly British.
And I have felt myself European at a cultural level before becoming European at a political level.
‘My’ Europe is one in which Handel, Voltaire and Canaletto came to London, while Dr Johnson went to Paris, Turner to Venice, and Charlotte Bronte to Brussels.
This constant cultural exchange is what underpins Europe, and survives what happens at a political level. It is in this spirit of cross-border amity that the Book Prize was founded, and in which it will, I am sure, flourish. »
