Category Archives: Travel

Sister Cities

In a city centre park in Asheville, North Carolina, there is a signpost with markers indicating six Sister Cities around the world. One of these points to Dunkeld and Birnam (3808 miles). I live there. Dunkeld and Birnam is not … Continue reading

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Safety in numbers

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When my old friend and host at last week’s wedding, Pramod Bhasin, returned to India from the US, in the early 1990s, it was to open offices for GE Capital, the financial arm of General Electric, then the world’s largest … Continue reading

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Indian wedding

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It all began last night with a large party in a central Delhi hotel. There were several hundred guests, a famous band and dancing. This was Sangeet, the first of a number of events to celebrate the wedding of my … Continue reading

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Little guitar

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On Saturday, I am taking one of my most treasured possessions to hospital. It’s a two-thirds size guitar which I bought while travelling in Latin America in 1973. It is now so cracked and battered that I daren’t play it … Continue reading

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Two writers

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This weekend I’m chairing two events at the Winter Words book festival in Pitlochry. The authors have a couple of things in common. They both come from the Northern Isles, one from Orkney, one from Shetland. And they are both, … Continue reading

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Long walk

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‘Hi Jamie,’ said the message from a friend, ‘a bit out of the blue but if you’re at home there are two Sudanese refugees walking to Birnam today – coming from Land’s End. They’re raising awareness and money for Sudan … Continue reading

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Elegy for Iran

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I have a tenuous connection with Iran, but it’s enough to sharpen the horror of what has unfolded there over the last few days. In the summer of 1969, my first year at university, I drove with three friends to … Continue reading

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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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