I chose to travel around the world WITH MY KIDS

Throwing open the hotel-room window, my daughter Isla, six, gasped at the view. ‘Mummy, it’s beautiful!’ she cried, and it really was utterly breathtaking. A huge volcano rose from the earth, surrounded by a blanket of thick, lush greenery. I’d never seen anything like it, and felt so excited that my partner, Andy, then 35, and I could give Isla, and our youngest, Maddie, then two, the opportunity to see something that magnificent.

Several months earlier, in April 2017, Andy, a private security contractor, had been in Baghdad for work, while I was at