George Eliot - Street Rep from 2021

George Eliot is a Street Rep. He tells me on the phone “I’m not a lady” with a silent nod to the Victorian novelist. He is also no relation to your interviewer. I arrange to meet him in the lovely continental café Le Délice in Hither Green.

He was born George Iliev in Bulgaria a few years before the Wall came down. It becomes clear that George is an intellectually curious and cosmopolitan person. He has had homes in Bulgaria, China, the US, Hong Kong – and now the UK. He lives in London, noticing and loving its interconnectedness, the way the city seems to be a melting pot of class, ethnicity and culture. “For ages it was central to an Empire and a global trade. And it has Greenwich, bang in the middle of the world’s time-zones. But even better, for a century despite hiccups now and again, the British keep experimenting with being liberals!”

George’s work takes him across the world moderating Masters’ degree courses. His hobby is maps. “Everywhere I go, I go into bookshops and ask to see the maps that are used in schools. It helps me to understand competing versions of history, and how people see themselves in the world.”

George has experience as a political campaigner. He is at ease knocking on doors on behalf of the charity and enjoys the delight in people’s faces so often caused when residents realise why he’s there. They don’t always smile, so it’s lucky George enjoys comedy too. A resident once angrily complained to him, “How dare you take photos of the pavement in front of my house!”

The garden is full of trees at George’s house. He has planted magnolia, loquat, California lilac, ginkgo, fig, peach, and olive. “I have a Taoist approach to gardening. Mostly I say to myself let nature take over, achieve results with no action, avoid fretting. But luckily for my partner, and our trees, I absolutely love watering!