Sarah Lyall on the Expatriate Life | Big Think

Sarah Lyall on the Expatriate Life

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Time and distance have changed but not erased the American in Sarah Lyall.

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Sarah Lyall:

Sarah Lyall grew up in New York City and is now London correspondent for the New York Times. She lives there with her husband, the writer Robert McCrum, and their two daughters. Her first book was entitled The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: Do you consider yourself an expatriate?Lyall: Well, unfortunately, I do. You know, I’ve been there for now 13 years. But I think my sensibility is still much more American. I don’t think I’m English, but, in some ways, maybe I’m not that American either. I’ve lived away for so long. And you kind of, as a newspaper reporter, you’re also always on the outside of things. So, you’re never really part of any culture, I don’t think, and, if you were, it’ll be hard to have the distance you need to write effectively about it. But, I guess, I’d be considered an expatriate. Sure, I’ve been away for so long. Question: Will you one day return to America?Lyall: I think I’d come back. I love New York, and I feel like I fit in here better than I do in England. But we’ve got two kids and they’re kind of English kids now, and so we’ll wait and see, you know. If they want to go to college here, it may be a good time to come back, or who knows, you know? It’s so easy to get back and forth between the two cities now.