Column: Monsieur Parapluie – March 2020
“I’m a dashing man-about-town! I’m a flaneur! I’m a viscount! I’m John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons!” (…..)
Article: Smooth Sailing
An article published in Diner’s Club magazine about a trip with my mother on the splendid Crystal Serenity. (…..)
Column: Strictly come cruising – February 2020
The importance of dancing to the horizon. (…..)
Column: Greek islands, fate and the furious – 18 November 2019
Traveling is like life, and not everyone wants to be happy. (…..)
My favourite place: Uncle Jim’s Hermanus – October 2019
A short place about somewhere I love immoderately. (…..)
Column: Paris in a heatwave – 9 June 2019
The most important survival skill a traveller needs to learn. (…..)
Feature: Joy on the Orient Express – June 2019
Something was going to die on that train, if they weren’t careful. (…..)
Feature: Siberia and the life-saving importance of being bored – March 2019
Vladivostok was a very long way away, and all I could think is, “I’m wasting my life”. (…..)
Column: Valentine in Moscow – February 2019
Oh, what could be more romantic than a weekend in Moscow? (…..)
Column: Visiting Lenin in Red Square – 26 September 2018
A visit to Lenin’s tomb teaches important life lessons in queuing and remembrance. (…..)
Column: Birthday in Andalucia – 5 April 2018
April is the cruelest month, even in southern Spain. (…..)
Column: Spending a penny – 2 April 2018
Your faithful columnist is apprehended breaking into a public toilet in Belgium. (…..)
Column: I blame George Saunders – March 2018
A terribly embarrassing encounter in the lobby of the Burj Al-Arab in Dubai. (…..)
Column: Why I travel – 27 Feb 2018
It took me a long time to realise why it is that I travel so much and so ceaselessly. (…..)
Column: I’m sorry, Lucy Jordan – January 2018
At the age of 37, I tried to give the gift of the warm Paris wind through her hair. (…..)
Column: Zimbabwe and crying in the rain – May 2017
When you are a scared little boy, it’s important to find your travel song. (…..)
Column: Miami and the wrong side of the mirror – April 2017
The Frenchwoman poked at my belly with a disapproving finger. (…..)
Column: Roger the cabin boy on the Chesapeake Bay – March 2017
Being so useless and superfluous does terrible things to a man’s self-esteem. (…..)
Column: The gorgeous Ganges by moonlight – Feb 2017
Number 16 on my List of Things To Do Before I Die was to see the gorgeous Ganges by moonlight. (…..)
Column: Hamburg and the luckiest man in the world – February 2017
Life lessons can come from anywhere, even a show store in Hamburg. (…..)
Column: How to build a sandcastle like a South African – December 2016
My friend Andre was afraid that his son was going to grow to be a Kiwi. (…..)
Column: Coney island and a slice of in-your-face pie – November 2016
I don’t normally eat out a lot when I travel, and this is one the reasons why. (…..)
Column: Yemen and the art of leaving – October 2016
In Yemen I did drugs with three strange men. (…..)
Column: Joining the mile-high club – September 2016
There’s a particular mile-high club that once you’ve joined, you’ll never want to leave. (…..)
Column: My favourite travel memory – 2 August 2016
My favourite travel memory currently belongs to somebody else. (…..)
Column: The fountain of youth – 28 June 2016
That time I swam in the Trevi fountain on a hot summer’s night in Rome. (…..)
Column: Utrecht and why I travel alone – 26 May 2016
It isn’t easy to travel alone but it has some strange and almost magical benefits. (…..)
Column: Zimbabwe and being on foot with the elephants – 5 May 2016
You should never go walking in the bush with a crazy Zimbabwean. (…..)
Column: KZN and the time I killed a turtle – April 2016
This is the worst thing I have ever confessed. (…..)
Article: Walking the Mighty Bovey – Spring 2016
A quest to walk the length of the river that bears my name. (…..)
Column: A stray in Virginia – February 2016
A man of a certain age, travelling with his mother, attracts a certain kind of attention. (…..)
Column: Jaipur, a kid and a few dollars less – January 2016
I was chasing a 10-year-old boy through the backstreets of Jaipur, trying to take money off him. (…..)
Column: Rwanda and the wide angle of trust – December 2015
You have to trust people, he said, or nothing good can ever happen. (…..)
Column: Of Devon, a river and a dog – November 2015
Nowhere on Earth is made more beautiful by a tourist. (…..)
Column: St Helena and the art of losing your girlfriend on a boat – November 2015
It was more than an adventure, it was a commitment, and that is the rug on which my best intentions so often snag their feet. (…..)
Column: A Gentleman on a train in Kenya – October 2015
A moving encounter on the Lunatic Express. (…..)
Column: My old man and the sea – September 2015
I did get off the Bluff, but he didn’t. He is still there, sitting on the grey stairs above the Indian ocean. (…..)
Column: Having faith in the hamburger – 19 Aug 2015
Resilience, endurance, art and eponymous eating on a long weekend in Hamburg. (…..)
Column: The Whale Trail and walking in the footsteps of another – July 2015
“Wait,” I begged. “Don’t leave me behind …” (…..)
Column: Asking and receiving in Cambodia – June 2015
Sometimes asking for help is a gift you give other people. (…..)
Column: The wheels on the Orient Express go round and round
Cross my palm with silver, said the fortune teller. (…..)
Column: How I met my mother (in New York) – 30 May 2015
When my father died he had never been out of the country … (…..)
Column: My list of things to do before I die – 20 May 2015
“Number 4: walk on the Cobb at Lyme Regis in a winter storm, like Meryl Streep.” (…..)
Feature: On foot with gorillas in the Mountains of the Moon – April 2015
A friend once told me that after seeing the gorillas she started having terrible nightmares in which she was a little girl taken from her family. (…..)
Column: Hemingway in Cuba: a farewell to armrests
“We’re not Americans,” I said. “We’re your friends!” (…..)
Column: Miami in winter and a lesson in life – 6 March 2015
I arrived in Miami on the coldest day on record. (…..)
Column: Showing off in the Amazon
It’s a bad idea to travel with someone you’re trying to impress. (…..)
Column: Dignity on a Kenyan beach – 6 January 2015
“I asked Professor his thoughts on charity, and I wish now I had written it down.” (…..)
Column: Cambodia, being a spy and the best pool in the world – 8 Dec 2014
You can’t choose what you remember best about a place. (…..)
Column: New York and the city seen for the first time – 5 Nov 2014
You can only cross the Queensboro bridge into New York for the first time once. (…..)
Column: Cold comfort in Istanbul – 27 October 2014
I wanted some ice cream because it had been a hard day in Istanbul. (…..)
Column: Bangkok and ripples widening – 13 October 2014
In Bangkok in the rain I met a small girl. (…..)
Column: The broken heart of Budapest – 25 Aug 2014
“There was a woman I loved but she didn’t love me any more, so I was in Budapest alone.” (…..)