Category Archives: Travel

In praise of failure

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When you write a book about someone you enter into a relationship with them, even if they are dead and the relationship is imaginary. It continues to exist after the book is published, the promotional work is done, and you … Continue reading

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Writ in Sand

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Two years ago I published a biography of my great-great uncle. He and I were born almost a century apart: he in 1852, I in 1949. We also arrived in South America almost a century apart, in 1870 and 1972 … Continue reading

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Southern bells

Before the pandemic I used to go into Edinburgh quite regularly. We have a railway station within walking distance of our house and it was a pleasant hour-and-a-half journey, down to Perth, through Fife and along the coast of the … Continue reading

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Mellow fruitfulness

First frost this morning. The trees on Birnam Hill are starting to turn—though not, curiously, as dramatically as they were in the Lot-et-Garonne where we were last week. There the oaks that mantle the vast Quercy forest had taken on … Continue reading

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Moon journeys

Fifty years ago last Saturday, in the crowded and sweltering public room of a cheap hotel, with an ancient fan creaking and whirring overhead, I watched the televised moon landing. I was in downtown Tehran. The commentary was in Farsi. … Continue reading

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In Africa

Last year my work took me around the world, from Auckland in February, to Rhode Island and Boston in October, with several European countries in between. I vowed to try and slow down in 2019, my seventieth year. It hasn’t … Continue reading

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Wine dark sea

In my last year at school I discovered that there was a small bursary for anyone studying Greek to travel to Greece. It was one of those things you had to find out for yourself; they didn’t tell you about … Continue reading

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Spirit of place

It’s fifteen years since I first started to work with my Dark Angels partner John Simmons, and it must now be nearly a decade since we both started our regular blogs. We have a lot in common and it would … Continue reading

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Of earth and sea

On Monday night I returned from Melbourne after a month spent mainly in New Zealand, the first ten days running Dark Angels workshops in and around Auckland, the following two weeks touring the North and South Islands. This is one … Continue reading

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September

September is a month of renewal. People are back from their summer holidays. A new academic year is starting. Autumn is in the air. And it’s the month of my birth. In September I always have a strong feeling of … Continue reading

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