The reaction of the chap on the door at Le Bidule told me that they weren’t used to seeing English…

Whenever one of those news stories appears about how many pubs have been forced to close in the last year,…

What a delight it is to toy with a wooden newspaper-holder rather than a smartphone, tucked away in the cosy…

Every year without fail, as the trees start thinking about losing their leaves, the papers are full of the same…

‘Tourism, tourism and tourism,’ said my Antiguan cab driver, when I asked what the country’s main industries were. Still, it’s…

‘What was it like growing up in Liverpool?’ a journalist asked John Lennon. ‘I didn’t grow up in Liverpool,’ he…

‘When he’s away, the thing he misses about Porto is the tripe.’ I was talking to Eduarda Sandeman, wife of…

A wet walk in a Glaswegian graveyard might not be your idea of fun, but then you might not have…

The British have always been in love with Florence. First visits cannot disappoint. One friend recalls being herded around as…

My first reaction on hearing of Margaret Thatcher’s death in 2013 was: ‘Great — now my autograph from her will…

In a documentary filmed at the end of his life, Sir John Betjeman, who lived in the village of Trebetherick…

Strange, isn’t it, that despite having such famously terrible weather, we Brits are so fond of a picnic. It’s something…

Usually, one of the first indications that you’ve entered a bilingual country is that the road signs are in two…