IN REMBRANDT’S
AMSTERDAM
“It’s like getting to know Rembrandt as a friend,” whispers Celeste as she smears black ink across the copper plate. “People come here and watch me making these prints and sometimes they start to cry”… Read
ON THE TRAIL OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
“All of this was open prairie when Wright moved here in 1889. So the houses he designed were called the Prairie School. And they changed the face of America”… Read
SEEKING DR LIVINGSTONE
Nine million litres of angry river race past my ankles and roar over the cliff. The lip of the world’s greatest waterfall is twenty feet away. A single slip and I’m gone… Read
FOLLOWING NEW ZEALAND’S RAINBOW GOD
As darkness falls on the olive trees and the grazing deer, I slip into the jacuzzi in my treehouse and listen to the Pacific breakers rolling slowly in… Read
IN DEEPEST DORSET WITH THOMAS HARDY
The red carpet has been rolled out and the actors are strolling in. At the cinema door they pause for photos. From the far end of the Georgian street you can hear the bleating of sheep… Read
INTO JORDAN’S HIDDEN CITY
“Cousin, do you remember me from two thousand years ago, when I sold you a shipload of ivory from Africa?”… Read
JUDGING THE TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
Like Mark Twain, reports of the death of travel writing have been greatly exaggerated…
Read
SAILING THE SWEDISH
ISLANDS
“You eat it with a knife and fork,” smiles Jane, my Swedish cousin, as I peer into a bowl of Summer Meadow Soup…
Read
WINDMILLS IN SPAIN
“From up here you can see all the windmills in La Mancha,” says Jose, peering to the rust-red plain below. “This is the crossroads of Spain…” Read
WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS
Gliding between the fashion models and millionaires, kissing hands and patting shoulders, the barman pauses at a photo above my chair… Read
CHASING GHOSTS IN CRETE
Disguised as dockers, two men darted across the harbour and cut their way through the wire… Read
TRAVEL WRITING IN STRANGE TIMES
It’s always a pleasure to judge the Bradt New Travel Writer of the Year award – for what it tells us about the state of the genre and sometimes the state of the world… Read
SCANDI NOIR
I’m driving through central Denmark in search of dead bodies… Read
PINTXOS ON PICASSO STREET
Chef Alija leans across the counter. “This food is our culture,” he growls, “our identity, our place…” Read
IN LAURIE LEE
COUNTRY
As I walked out one
midsummer morning
I found myself in Laurie Lee’s Gloucestershire… Read
BESIDE THE
SUMMER SEA
“Look out for whales!” shouts my teenage son as our bikes rattle along a narrow path high above the Baltic Sea…
Read
FOR STEVE WATKINS
1965-2019
I’m raising a glass to you tonight amigo / A glass of our Pedro Ximenez / Recalling…Read
AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES
Puss in Boots strides towards me, a handsome fellow with a walrus moustache. Next comes Red Riding Hood, a blond girl in clogs. Behind her slinks The Wolf, its haunches quivering with power and desire… Read
RENDEZ-VOUS IN PARIS
The first place I ever tasted freedom was Paris. I remember the day it happened… Read
“I have seldom heard a train go by and not wished I was on it.” – Paul Theroux