Notes on…
Barbados
Unusually, I didn’t leave the British Isles until I was 35, when I went to the Maldives for a fortnight.…
Marseille
If you haven’t been lost in Marseille then you can’t have been there. As Alexandre Dumas wrote, this is a…
Marseille
If you haven’t been lost in Marseille then you can’t have been there. As Alexandre Dumas wrote, this is a…
Wine tasting
One of the great jokes of the wine trade is: ‘Have you ever confused Burgundy with Bordeaux?’ ‘Not since this…
Wine tasting
One of the great jokes of the wine trade is: ‘Have you ever confused Burgundy with Bordeaux?’ ‘Not since this…
Møn
The sky over the island of Møn, which is at the bottom right of Denmark, was cobalt and the whitewashed…
Møn
The sky over the island of Møn, which is at the bottom right of Denmark, was cobalt and the whitewashed…
The first Spectator cruise
It’s a complete recipe for disaster of course. By which I mean being trapped at sea with The Spectator’s ‘Low…
The first Spectator cruise
It’s a complete recipe for disaster of course. By which I mean being trapped at sea with The Spectator’s ‘Low…
Egypt
Egypt’s revolution of 2011 didn’t just get rid of President Mubarak: it did a pretty good job of clearing out…
Egypt
Egypt’s revolution of 2011 didn’t just get rid of President Mubarak: it did a pretty good job of clearing out…
The Vatican
The sun has only just risen in Rome and we are standing bleary-eyed in a short queue outside the Vatican.…
The Vatican
The sun has only just risen in Rome and we are standing bleary-eyed in a short queue outside the Vatican.…
Vienna
People get the wrong idea about Vienna and I blame Johann Strauss. His plinky-plonky waltzes have become the soundtrack to…
Vienna
People get the wrong idea about Vienna and I blame Johann Strauss. His plinky-plonky waltzes have become the soundtrack to…
Impressionist Paris
The spectre of the Charlie Hebdo killings still hangs over Paris. Outside the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, opposite the…
Impressionist Paris
The spectre of the Charlie Hebdo killings still hangs over Paris. Outside the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, opposite the…
Athens
My first visit to Athens as a student gave me a set of impressions that the present crisis has only…
Athens
My first visit to Athens as a student gave me a set of impressions that the present crisis has only…
The Turquoise Coast
Legend has it that Mark Antony considered Turkey’s Turquoise Coast so beautiful that, in about 32 bc, he gave it…
The Turquoise Coast
Legend has it that Mark Antony considered Turkey’s Turquoise Coast so beautiful that, in about 32 bc, he gave it…
Sicily
Syracuse is a handsome place, steeped in a rich historical broth. At the tip sits Ortygia, an island offshoot, which…
Fez
Fez is one of the seven medieval wonders of the world. An intact Islamic city defined by its circuit of…
Venice
I arrived in Venice believing it would reek of sewage. It didn’t. The walk into the centre went through cobbled…
Glasgow School of Art
I was working on the final edit of my book — a fictionalised account of the year Charles Rennie Mackintosh…
