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As the cab crawled along the Las Vegas Strip in the heat of a September afternoon, I wondered exactly what I was doing in Sin City. My Editor had been keen for me to get the viewpoint of Haruka Kirayoshi, the leading, what was she called, psychopolitical analyst.

I had imagined meeting a dowdy academic but the biographical research had shown her to be anything but. She was staying at The Palazzo Hotel having spoken at a symposium on historical developmental analysis and was due to return to Tokyo in three days.

The cab had reached the Venetian/Palazzo Complex and I got out as one of the horde of hotel valets swept toward the door. Once I paid the cab, I stepped momentarily into the heat before walking into the air-conditioned opulence of the Hotel Lobby.

The sound of the casino and the hustle and bustle of guests and visitors were omnipresent but the Concierge desk was fairly quiet. Having ascertained the location of our meeting, I walked through the casino and out into a quieter area near the pool.

I saw her sitting sipping a cocktail, a picture of radiance and elegance by the poolside. It was hard to believe that she had written the bestseller “Why Countries Go Mad” and that the Anglo-Irish War, along with the Six-Day War had been a key part of her influential thesis on societal and political development.

She had the ear of Presidents and Prime Ministers and had been in the company of the great, the good and the not-so-good. It had been rumoured that both President McCain and President Obama had wanted her to serve as a special adviser but she had declined all offers.

“Professor Kirayoshi?” I asked nervously, “My name is Andrew Ward. We have an appointment.”

She looked up from beneath her sunhat and smiled.

“Please join me, Mr Ward and please call me Haruka,” she replied. A waiter came over and before I could say anything she said “two more of these please. They really are gorgeous. Now, what I can do for you, Mr Ward?” she asked, still smiling.

“Call me Andrew,” I replied, I explained how I was working on a book on British political history in the 1970s and 1980s and her perspective on the Anglo-Irish War would be invaluable.

Her perspective was indeed invaluable but that’s not why I remember that day.

Two years to the day after that meeting, we were married at the Four Seasons Resort on Maui. Her beaming parents and mine were there, my brother was my best man and she was still smiling.
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