My favourite family photo: I was six, with mumps and diarrhoea and having the time of my life'

"In the 1980s, the British construction industry was hit hard by recession. At the same time, Saudi Arabia had the opposite problem; lots of money and a desire to build infrastructure, but not enough skilled workers. As a result, thousands of British labourers found it was the only place where they could earn a wage. My dad freshly out of work with a young family to support was one of them."

"We travelled out to see him twice, once to Riyadh and once to Jeddah. Objectively, the Riyadh trip was better. Dad lived on a worker's compound, and there was a pool and a restaurant and loads of room to run around. Jeddah, less so but that's where this photo was taken. Dad shared a tiny flat on the city's noisy Palestine Street with one of his colleagues."

"Looking back, I was clearly shielded from the politics and the uglier elements of the country, so my main takeaways were simply of scale and noise. Every building in Jeddah was bigger and shinier than any building I had ever seen before. The roads were dotted with vast works of modern art that I could scarcely wrap my mind around. There was a giant fountain (the biggest in the world) that changed colour at night."

In the 1980s, British construction faced recession while Saudi Arabia invested heavily in infrastructure but lacked skilled workers. Thousands of British labourers, including the narrator's father, worked in Saudi cities. The family visited Riyadh and Jeddah; Riyadh had worker compounds with pools and restaurants, while in Jeddah the father shared a tiny flat on noisy Palestine Street. The narrator, six years old, caught mumps and suffered diarrhoea, received novelty karate pyjamas, and enjoyed the visit despite discomfort. The city felt oversized and noisy, with shinier buildings, vast modern art, a colour-changing giant fountain, and a booming call to prayer.

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