After working in theatres in Leeds, London and Bristol and writing more plays, in 1977 he moved to Japan, where after teaching English for two years he became a freelance journalist and wrote his first book, Tokyo: the City at the End of the World, published by Kodansha International in 1985.

[5] It was translated into Japanese and published the same year by Asahi Shinbunsha as Portrait of Tokyo (東京の肖像, Tōkyō no Shōzō).

In 2011 his study of Aung San Suu Kyi, The Lady and the Peacock,[8] was published by Random House.

[9] A pirated edition appeared in Burma, on sale at the headquarters of Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, in Yangon.

[10] Since leaving The Independent in 2016 he has written several plays, including The Kingdom of Heaven, performed at the Script Room in London in February 2019, and Savages, in a Zoom production directed by Sebastian Michael and starring Tim Bentinck, in July 2020.