Museums of modern art can be intimidating places. The wider public, I suspect, would feel more comfortable in the National Gallery in London, where the works on display are familiar and long-ago accepted as great, than, for example, the Tate Modern, where challenging images greet the visitor on every wall. Art isn’t like music. It’s… Continue reading
Flying with Hitler – Welsh journalist’s 1933 scoop
On February 23rd 1933 Gareth Jones, then only 27, secured one of the journalistic scoops of the 20th century, when he travelled with Hitler in his private plane during his election campaign to win total power through the democratic process. He, and a colleague from the Daily Express, were the first journalists to accompany Hitler… Continue reading →
What sort of traveller am I?
I had breakfast with two travel PR ladies in London yesterday, and in the course of that chat they asked me the routine but important question – what was I really interested in? It’s a useful question to be asked from time to time, because it gives you the chance, after many years of travel… Continue reading →
Swanage – South Coast resort soon to be reconnected to national rail network
South Coast resort Swanage has been reconnected to Britain’s rail system, 45 years after the link was severed. Most holiday resorts around the coast of Britain are well served by the railways. The closures of the mid 20th century removed some loss-making lines. Yet seaside places such as Blackpool and Bournemouth and Brighton, as well… Continue reading →
Hastings – South Coast’s rising resort
Another South Coast weekend away that isn’t Brighton or Eastbourne… There’s much more to Hastings than the battle that didn’t even happen there – that was six miles away. A pretty little Old Town full of distinctive shops, a fishing fleet of small boats hauled up on the shingle, Britain’s steepest cliff lift, a bracing… Continue reading →
Following Jane Austen through the Peak Park – to Mr Darcy’s country seat
Jane Austen’s most popular novel, and, many might argue, the most perfect novel in the English language, Pride and Prejudice, was first published 200 years ago, on January 28th, 1813. I wrote the following, after a recent visit to Derbyshire. ———— We are in deepest Derbyshire, climbing a steep rutted track lined with ancient trees. A dunnock… Continue reading →