After the dramatic sacking of Peter Mandelson following revelations about his links with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, James Roscoe has been drafted in to take over as Britain’s interim ambassador to the US while Downing Street begins the process of finding a permanent replacement.
While there is no suggestion yet that Mr Roscoe will take over from Lord Mandelson permanently, the career diplomat has a strong CV. He is currently the embassy’s head of mission, a role which sees him take over in the absence of the ambassador.
Before he arrived in Washington he was the UK ambassador to the UN General Assembly from 2019. Prior to this, from 2016 to 2019, he held the roles of director for communication at the Cabinet Office, and subsequently the Department for Exiting the European Union.
He has also previously served as a press adviser at No 10, as well as having been a communications secretary to the late Queen.
And while Roscoe typically avoids the spotlight, his wife, Clemency Burton-Hill, has had her fair share of media coverage.
The former actress, classical violinist and political commentator is also a successful arts journalist and broadcaster – with the duo being dubbed one of London’s new power couples in 2014 by the Evening Standard.
Ms Burton-Hill, 43, was born in London. As well as having performed internationally as a violinist, she has also written five books and worked as an arts journalist – regularly featuring on the BBC as a classic music presenter.
After suffering a brain haemorrhage in January 2020, which left her in a coma, Ms Burton-Hill worked on a new BBC Arena film, My Brain: After the Rupture, about the experience and her recovery.
“Unlike most brain injury survivors, I had a platform, or knew how to get the wheels turning, in terms of telling people how something like this could happen,” she said.
“I also had this very strong sense of wanting to do something useful for the community of people who have had brain injuries, especially as we still don’t know what is going to happen to me ultimately, or anyone else”, she told the Guardian ahead of the documentary’s broadcast.
Ms Burton-Hill, who had to learn how to walk and talk again after the injury, said she felt it was “really important that none of this was sugar-coated”.
“Yes, what happened to me was extraordinarily rare and random and weird and wild, and here’s where all the platitudes and cliches come out, but we just don’t know how long we’ve got. We don’t know what is going to happen in five years or five minutes”, she added.
The duo – who met in Sierra Leone in 2006 – live in Washington DC with their sons, Tomos and Joe.
