Kenya
The inside track on racing syndicates
Billy Connolly once declared that Scotland had only two seasons: June and winter. Perversely, though, just as the northern swallows…
The fun of the Shergar Cup
Gary Lineker once summed up football as ‘a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at…
Has there ever been a jockey like Oisin Murphy?
We are blessed these days with a rare stream of jockey talent including the likes of William Buick, Ryan Moore,…
My father vs the killer lion
Laikipia, Kenya This month, in broad daylight on our Kenyan farm, a lioness mauled one of my bull calves. Before…
My battle with the dreaded ‘black cotton’
Laikipia, Kenya By the time I set off from the farm before dawn we’d had 22in of rain in the…
Downhill all the way: the decline of the British Empire after 1923
Matthew Parker gives us snapshots of Britain’s sprawling dominions in September 1923, showing both governors and governed increasingly questioning the purpose of the empire
Wild life
Laikipia Plateau, Kenya Until only a few years ago, the constellations blazed across the sky above the farm at night…
Wild life
Laikipia You know things are bad when the zebras are thin. Even during most droughts, zebras are like matrons at…
Wild life
Delayed, on Southern Rail Home From the Hill is a 1987 documentary by Molly Dineen about Hilary Hook, an elderly…
Coming up roses
Kenya’s flower growers have a busy time ahead
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 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…
Marathon man
I’ve not been allowed anywhere near the TV remote control this week because of some kind of infernal sporting event…
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
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
Kenya I stood under huge skies in the open country of our farm in northern Kenya and, after months of…
