Notes on…
A stay at the spa
I know James Bond is partial to strutting around not-quite-enveloped in a dressing gown, but whether your robe is monogrammed…
Goodwood Festival of Speed
You smelt them, it was said of the Mongol hordes, before you heard them, and by the time you heard…
Art fairs
In 1967, two Cologne-based gallerists came up with the Cologne Art Market — a trade fair where German galleries could…
The Himalayas
As the aircraft descends into the high altitude military airport at Leh, the first glimpse of the Himalayan Kingdom of…
The Alpes-Maritimes
My mother always said she wanted to ‘die tidy’. But I never imagined she would file everything away quite so…
Eastern Germany
Ever since the Berlin Wall came down, I’ve been pottering around eastern Germany, where my father’s family came from, and…
Athens
Where in the developed world can you ride a moped, minus helmet, at 2 a.m. under the noses of weary…
Book clubs
Everyone knows somebody who belongs to a book club. From informal gatherings of bookish friends in living rooms and cafés…
Sicily
Western Sicily has been a crucible of aspiration and grandeur: the human condition at its most exalted: unsurpassable art and…
Madrid
I got Madrid utterly wrong for quite a long time. It’s a lovely city to walk in, and I thought…
Notes on… Wallpaper
Every night, while my husband reads by screen-light, my mind runs like an invisible rat two miles north to the…
Paris
No city really multitasks like Paris, shorthand for romance, culture, fashion, gastronomy and the kind of street life you find…
Venice
For Henry James it was ‘the repository of consolations’. Wordsworth, an earlier visitor, called it ‘the eldest child of liberty’.…
Art in country houses
Last year 114,000 people flocked to Houghton Hall in north Norfolk for a once-in-a lifetime opportunity. Part of the great…
North Devon
It was late September. My wife and I were feeling overworked and overstressed — our mental states not helped by…
The Marche
When I first visited the Marche a dozen years ago, folk who knew about such things tapped their noses and…
Valentine’s Day
One of the many things I love about my wife is that she doesn’t make me do anything for Valentine’s…
South-west Ireland
Of course one feels free on a holiday: that’s what holidays are for. But I have rarely felt freer than…
Golf in the Algarve
My second tee shot soared high and straight, then hurtled down towards the lake; a repeat of my first. I…
Amsterdam
‘What are people in your country saying about Holland these days?’ one Dutch friend recently asked me. I hadn’t the…
Gardens for all seasons
Winter garden visiting is a solitary pastime, lending itself to the misanthrope, and is highly recommended. When it’s so cold…
The Dordogne
Call me a trencherman or worse, but I tend to think of the Dordogne as a giant restaurant-cum-farm shop, set…
Music in Vienna
There is no finer city in which to hear music than Vienna. Or, to put it more felicitously, there is…
