February 2025
Dear Cook Society Member,
I am delighted to have taken over as Chair of the Cooks for 2025-2026. Many thanks to Pauline Lyle-Smith for her tremendous contribution as outgoing Chair, including leading the British side at the Gathering in Australia last year.
We will have an excellent programme of events in 2025, and will be working hard on putting together the 2026 Gathering when we will host the Australian Cooks here.
Thanks to Marina in the Secretariat, we now have a fantastic new website, with lots of relevant information about the Cooks. It will make booking events, renewing your Membership and accessing information much more convenient. Please do sign up at thecooksociety.org and complete your personal details.
I think most of you know me by now, but if you don't, please come and say 'Hi' at a future event. I was British High Commissioner in Canberra from 2011-2015, and later Ambassador in Japan. My wife Sarah and I have spent much of my diplomatic career living in the Indo Pacific region. I first visited Australia some 35 years ago and have had an abiding affection for the country and its people ever since. Multiple generations of my family have emigrated to Oz, and our eldest son lived there for eight years and gained Australian citizenship, though he's now living back in London.
Yours sincerely
Paul Madden CMG
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