Notebook
Australian Notebook
Margaret River, Western Australia I’m here for a food festival, and to help along my autobiography. The Blonde had cashed…
Christmas Notebook
As I strolled through the aisles in a large department store, I almost choked when I read a large display…
London Notebook
I’ve spent much of the autumn and winter shooting my new TV series for BBC1. New Blood looks at the…
Notebook
This time last year I was running around excitedly telling all my friends that I had an African president in…
Fear, loneliness and nostalgia: a return to Johannesburg
Oddly enough, the cabin service people on the plane are constantly eating during the night, helping themselves to the first-class…
Sorry, America, but it looks like Joe Biden is your next president
I have a sinking feeling that Joe Biden might be the next president of the United States. In a brilliant…
Venice Notebook
Almost all of Venice’s greatest treasures are on public view. Anyone who visits can look across from the Doge’s Palace…
Iowa notebook
The Iowa State Fair ‘Donnnaaallldd!!! Donnnaaaaallldd!!!’ Donald Trump was surrounded by fans. He looked happy. He took a bite out of…
Greece Notebook
At the weekend, I tried — and failed — to get some money out of an empty cashpoint near Omonia…
French Notebook
An overnight stop on the Ile de Ré taken between the St Malo ferry and the Quercy, where we always…
Katmandu Notebook
After the first earthquake we were told that the chance of another one was 200 to 1. A fortnight later,…
Washington Notebook
This week has been all about the election, the US presidential election that is. It is 18 months away but…
Palace Notebook
The day of my investiture at Buckingham Palace dawned bringing freezing rain and fierce winds, which lashed at the windows…
Grand National Notebook
‘How’s your shoulder?’ someone asked recently, and it was only then I realised, for the first time in a while,…
Cuba Notebook
Sloppy Joe’s — which starred in the film of Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana — was always likely to…
Letter from Paris
Like many journalists, I’m a bit of a know-it-all — when information is touted as ‘new’, especially in government reports,…
Dresden notebook
Sachsenschweine — Saxon pigs — said the graffiti as my train moved out of Berlin on its way to Dresden.…
Letter from Beirut
Blue and white Christmas lights twinkle over the shops near my apartment in Beirut’s Christian quarter; pricy boutiques display elaborate…
A London Christmas
I have been having my vault done over. Not, as you might think, the family strong room, but the place…
A Dramatist’s Notebook
The nicest day of the year was spent at Charleston in May. The Sussex farmhouse shared by Duncan Grant and…
American notebook
The trouble with going on an American book tour is that I know it’s going to play havoc with my…
Notes from the Catwalk
It seems as though I have just been on some grand tour of the absurd. It helps that I work…
Winter Diary
A few days ago I went truffle hunting in Piedmont. It’s been a bumper year for white truffles in northern…
A singleton’s notebook
Christmas will be a very warm occasion for me. I’ll be spending it with the Massonneaus — my family —…
Kilkenny Notebook
‘What is a Minsky moment, anyway?’ asks Gerry Stembridge, an Irish satirist. ‘I’ve been reading about them in the papers…
