Notes on…
The Stockholm Grand
We’ve all been there, I’m sure. You work your pan off to get everything done in time. You count down…
Hotels for dogs
The first time I checked in to a French hotel with a golden retriever — his name was Gregory, predecessor…
Malta
Fate occasionally leads travellers to places they had never planned to visit. Into this category, for me, fell Malta. I…
The Alps
For a melancholy example of the power of celebrity, head to the Alps. Since Michael Schumacher’s accident last December in…
Gibraltar
The British overseas territory of Gibraltar, or, as some would have it, the wart on the bottom of the Iberian…
Portmeirion
My husband and I stay for a week most summers in Portmeirion, the strangest and loveliest ‘village’ in the world.…
Barbados
Driving up the west coast, from Bridge-town to Speightstown, you soon see why people around here call this the Platinum…
Corsica
Napoleon’s birthplace, Casa Buona-parte, in Ajaccio, Corsica’s capital, is pretty grand. It has high ceilings, generous, silk-lined rooms and a…
Horses in London
The days when horses and humans lived cheek by jowl in the capital are unarguably over. Brewers’ drays have disappeared,…
Artists’ houses
I’m not sure what took me to Salvador Dalí’s house in Port Lligat, but it sure as hell wasn’t admiration.…
Deal
However the sand got into Sandwich, it did Deal a big favour. As the Cinque Port’s harbour silted up from…
Builders
I have a friend who is perhaps best described by that old-fashioned phrase ‘ladies’ man’. He’s not a cad or…
Sicily
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that Sicily is anything like the Isle of Wight: it’s 70 times the size,…
The perfect malt
It was poker night. Five yuppies crammed round a table in a room at the back of a south London…
Seville
On our second night in Seville we got lost. We’d been to a flamenco concert, my first, a little way…
The Alps, with children
It’s a terrible moment, the realisation that you’ve spawned a monster. Parenthood, it becomes clear, has wiped stylish holidays off…
Gloucestershire
The heat was still sweltering as we headed off at dusk towards the hide to watch wildlife with our enthusiastic…
Gleneagles
Pity the folk at Gleneagles. They have the misfortune to host the Ryder Cup this year. Nothing, surely, can surpass…
Lucerne
When Queen Victoria came here for her summer holidays, Lucerne was already a bustling tourist destination. Today it’s just as…
Prague
Prague, ‘Golden Prague’, is rich in music, architecture, glassware, pilsner and natural beauty. It is one of those places where…
Killarney
Here’s a question for a Guinness-sponsored pub quiz: who or what is a ‘jarvie’? The answer is the gypsy driver…
Chinese porcelain
Next time you’re in a shop that sells Chinese blue and white porcelain, pick up a piece and turn it…
Radøy
The Immigrant Church at Sletta emigrated from North Dakota 18 years ago. Built on the prairie by Norwegian settlers in…
London Hotels
The test of a truly great city is reinvention. Does it have the courage to change? London holds a PhD…
Salzburg
Salzburg is so ridiculously pretty, it’s sometimes hard to take it seriously. Standing on the ramparts of its knights-in-armour castle,…
