Wild life
Wild life
Malindi, the Indian Ocean When I lived in Jerusalem a long time ago, I often visited the Church of the…
Wild life
Kenya Wondering what this year will bring, at dawn this morning I stood in the waves in front of our…
Wild life
Laikipia Plateau, Kenya Our local chief Panta wore a government-issue khaki uniform with epaulettes, beret and swagger stick. On a…
Wild life
Kenya Each time I sit in St Bride’s on Fleet Street during the memorial of another friend, I look around…
Wild life
Kenya When I was a child in Kenya, the road from the Indian Ocean up to Nairobi was still…
Wild life
Laikipia He was turned out in a crisp bush ranger’s uniform and handled his assault rifle like a man hardened…
Wild life
Malindi, Kenya Beneath the Indian Ocean’s surface, I wondered if the pandemic had turned out to be a good thing…
Wild life
Nairobi Since my father first caught sight of Mombasa from his ship in late 1929, at least some of my…
Wild life
Kenya In March, Global Britain signed a new, post-Brexit trade deal with Kenya. This was a welcome agreement for my…
Wild life
Kenya The evening before the assault on Addis Ababa, my guide Girmay and I ventured into a complex stuffed with…
Wild life
Laikipia Until I promised to slaughter a fat-tailed sheep with a goat thrown in for a feast, the farm cowhands…
Wild life
Laikipia In the past I had a low opinion of sheep. During my first forays into farming I saw them…
Wild life
Laikipia In one of Kenya farmer Karen Blixen’s short stories, a character says: ‘I know of a cure for everything:…
Wild life
Malindi, Kenya I’ve learned that mourning must be tackled ever so gently. As a younger man, when friends were killed…
Wild life
Indian Ocean coast ‘I love you’ became just ‘love’, and that was the last word Mum was able to say…
Wild life
Laikipia I was drinking in the fresh air on the high earth wall of my farm dam last week, when…
Wild life
Laikipia As the train pulled into Victoria my wife Claire, back home on the farm in Kenya, revealed that a…
Wild life
Exmoor I am heading to Exmoor for the first time since I was last there in 1977 — and as…
Wild life
Bexhill-on-Sea My Aunt Beryl taught me to love books and paintings. When I’m at a loose end in London, lonely,…
Wild life
Kenya I stood under huge skies in the open country of our farm in northern Kenya and, after months of…
Wild life
London Simon, proprietor of the sex shop opposite our Covid-19 testing centre in Soho, insisted on popping a pack…
Wild life
As we all know by now, the pandemic distorts time like a concertina. Life before March is a world that…
Wild life
I used to live in Mogadishu for months at a time, cooped up in compounds behind fortified walls. Venturing on…
Wild life
I keep thinking what I’ll do when we regain our liberty — and I picture that beer at the end…
Wild life
Laikipia The sweetest sound to me now is the dawn chorus of birdsong at home on the farm. I lay…
