About Hugh
Hugh is a writer and former British diplomat whose career spanned more than four decades, with postings across Europe, North America, and Asia. The final decade saw him serve as the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to Tajikistan (2015–2019) and Turkmenistan (2019–2021), after which he decided it was time to change course. He now writes memoir and cultural essays shaped by music, travel, and place—especially the textures of everyday life and the human stories that often sit just out of sight of public events.
Music has been his lifelong companion, with a particular love of opera. He has sung since school and has always found that the voice—whether trained or simply offered for pleasure—can act as a bridge: between languages, between sensibilities, between people who may not begin in agreement. In recent years he has worked with a voice coach, though he still thinks of singing primarily as something done for connection and joy rather than display. His instrumental ambitions have been more enthusiastic than accomplished. He played bassoon in his teens, and piano still, privately, for the sheer relief of it.
Hugh lives by the sea in East Sussex with his wife, Janine, and their much-indulged ginger cat, Tajik Tom Tat, who joined the family while he was in Tajikistan. Their household also includes two tortoises, which lend a certain steadiness to the tempo of life. Having grown up on a farm in rural Hampshire, he is still shaped by that early landscape—its weather, routines, and long views—which continue to inform his sense of rhythm and observation. He has a long-standing fascination with language, both classical and modern, and with what is gained and lost in translation: not only words, but tone, humour, and unspoken assumptions.
Alongside writing, he is deeply involved in the arts, particularly on the Sussex coast. He is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra, a trustee of Ensemble OrQuesta, a London-based baroque opera company, and a regular contributor to the Review of Sussex Arts (ROSA). He is also a founding trustee of the Gulrukhsor Women’s Centre UK, supporting vulnerable women and children in northern Tajikistan.
Much of his life now is made up of the things that keep a person properly awake: coastal walks, concerts and theatre, the ordinary satisfactions of public transport and small journeys, and a determination to stay fit after a near-fatal experience with COVID. He has a collector’s eye—antiques, art, curios, silver—objects that carry their own quiet histories and which, like music, can sometimes say what a straightforward account cannot.
The Singing Ambassador – A Tajik Story will be published in September 2026. It is the first in a sequence of books drawing on a life shaped by diplomacy, culture, and the persistent, unexpected usefulness of song.
‘…More extraordinary were the recent performances of Hugh Philpott, Britain’s man in Turkmenistan, who broadcast videos of himself singing Soviet-era folk songs against sweeping mountain landscapes. When challenged on social media about singing songs associated with a country with a poor human-rights record, the ambassador replied: This exercise has done more to further my serious agenda than I ever hoped… Sometimes a song can say things a thousand dull demarches just don’t get across.’
— James Landale, BBC diplomatic editor, writing in The Diplomat Magazine – ‘Music and Diplomacy’
‘Dressed in a crumpled linen shirt, Britain’s ambassador to Turkmenistan has gained fans with a song in the tricky local language.’
— Tom Parfitt, The Times, 19 December 2020
‘Bob’s Music Award” is Tajikistan’s national original song contest aimed at developing cultural opportunities for young people to express their talents through music and expand their professional horizons.'
‘The untold story of Tajikistan's original song competition shared to you by those who played a direct part in bringing this idea into life...’
https://www.facebook.com/UKinTajikistan/videos/358665511668406
‘Bob’s Music Award - This project was created and developed in memory of Bob Leverington’s activities and his dedication to the cultural life of Tajikistan.’
Bactria Culture Centre 2022
The Bactria Culture Centre was my implementing partner and as you will see they took the baton and ran.
«Легендарную песню “Мухаббат” на таджикском языке Чрезвычайный и Полномочный посол Великобритании в Таджикистане Хью Филпотт посвятил всем таджикским женщинам».
‘The legendary song Muhabbat, performed in the Tajik language, was dedicated by Hugh Philpott, the British Ambassador to Tajikistan, to all Tajik women.’
— Asia-Plus, - “Посол Британии в Таджикистане спел про любовь на таджикском”,
9 March 2019
«Сафири Бритониё дар Тоҷикистон Ҳю Филпотт гуфт, интернетро бояд мисли барқ ва об фикр кунем ва сарфи назар аз чигуна истифода шудан, онҳо бояд бошанд.»
“The British Ambassador to Tajikistan, Hugh Philpott, said the internet should be treated like electricity and water — a basic necessity of modern life.”
— Nansmit.org, “Сафири Бритониё: ‘Интернет мисли обу барқ аст, бояд бошад’”,
last accessed 13 January 2026