Paul Ames

Born in England, Paul Ames has been enchanted by Portugal since he first arrived as a child in the 1970s and found a country gripped by revolutionary fervor after overturning 50 years of dictatorship. He settled permanently in Portugal in 2013 with his Portuguese wife. They lived first in Lisbon, the capital, and now enjoy a quieter life close to the beach in the sun-kissed southern Algarve region.

Paul grew up in rustic Suffolk country in the east of England. He moved to London to study, earning a degree in modern European history and politics; and spent a year at the University of Nice on the French Riviera, gaining higher-education certificates in French culture and European Union studies. After an internship at the European Parliament in Luxembourg, Paul was hired by a local English-language newspaper and started his career as a journalist. In the mid-1980s he moved to Portugal for the first time, hired as editor at a glossy monthly magazine aimed at tourists and ex-pats in the Algarve.

He later moved to Lisbon and became correspondent for the Associated Press in the Portuguese capital, covering fast-moving political and economic developments in the country and travelling several times to Portuguese-speaking Angola to report on efforts to end that country’s civil war. In 1992, Paul headed to Brussels, Belgium, joining AP’s team covering the European Union and NATO. He followed the launch of the euro currency and the expansion of the EU and NATO into eastern Europe. He travelled extensively across Europe, from Scottish fishing villages to Polish army bases and summits on Greek islands. Assignments in Africa included conflicts in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

As AP’s NATO correspondent he accompanied Allied forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Paul quit AP in 2009 to launch a freelance career, continuing to cover European politics for the likes of GlobalPost and Politico, but increasingly expanding his focus to embrace writing on travel, food and culture. His work ranged from investigating workers’ rights in Qatar, to detailing innovation in Rome’s gelato scene or reporting from Ukraine as Russia launched its first invasion in 2014.

He continues to work as a freelance writer in Portugal, dividing his time between the Algarve, traveling and visiting his family in London.