I was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to a German father, and a New Zealand mother, and although I went to high school in Christchurch, New Zealand, for a brief term when I was 15, I spent most of my school years and university years in Germany, including doing a law degree and a masters in International Economic Law.

Something’s happening on the north coast of Brazil. A great machine is coming, a machine of property developers and promoters who learned their trade on the costas of Spain, the Persian Gulf coast of Dubai, and anywhere else the European investor cast an acquisitive glance across a border. I know, because I’m a small cog in that machine.