Edward Snowden a year on: Odyssey of the whistle-blower …

"If I could go anywhere in the world, that place would be home." So said Edward Snowden in Moscow on May 28.

Home is, of course, America. But for the 30-year-old former NSA contractor, who turned his life upside down to expose the mass surveillance carried out in secret by the US government, the exact location of home is difficult to pinpoint.

Maryland - one of the wealthiest states - could stake a claim. It is where Snowden spent his formative years, attending primary and middle schools in Anne Arundel County, between Washington and Baltimore.

Snowden dropped out of high school in 1998 after a prolonged illness. As a result, he spent long periods at home.

It was during this time that his fascination for how things worked developed into a passion for computers and technology.

In 2001, when he was in his late teens, his parents divorced.

Ed, as he was known, moved into a house his mother, Elizabeth "Wendy" Snowden, bought in Ellicott City, Maryland, where she still lives.

Overlooking a tennis court and playground, the house is a 25-minute drive from downtown Baltimore, the largest city in Maryland, where Wendy works as the chief deputy clerk for administration and information technology at the federal court. She has never spoken publicly about the events that catapulted her son into the global spotlight.

When the South China Morning Post visited the courthouse where she works, we were told by officials she would be making "no comment".

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Edward Snowden a year on: Odyssey of the whistle-blower ...