My father gave me my name in honour, and memory, of the great Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, who was murdered one day short of his 30th birthday by bandits in China in 1935. I’ve written a monograph – click here – which briefly outlines his life and describes a flight he took with the electioneering Hitler… Continue reading
Riding the Golden Road – way out west (in Wales)
(This article was first published here in April, 2014.) The Golden Road. What adventures spring to mind? Riding a great, gilded highway as it strikes east across the steppes of Central Asia? Bumping along an ancient trading route down through the sands of Arabia? No need to venture so far. We have a Golden Road… Continue reading →
EU drives auto manufacturers to cleaner, greener cars
What makes the new Hyundai i20 CRDi Blue so special, and why should you care? And what is it about the Volvo V40 D2 ES that marks it apart from many other well-appointed, comfortable cars? Does it even matter? In the week of the Rio+20 conference, where the world is likely, once again, to fall… Continue reading →
Flash of feathered lightning over an English market town
Imagine you had the chance to watch some young lions out on the African savannah taking their first gambolling steps under the protective eye of their mother. Or if you were on hand in the Arctic when a polar bear showed its young how to slide down a snow slope. Perhaps it is the idea… Continue reading →
Crystal ball gazing at the Hay Festival
The 25th Hay festival, which closed on Sunday, was in looking-ahead mood. A string of sessions under the heading “The way we live now” asked questions of personalities about life today, and where we would be in 25 years time. We attended debate number 6 (event 486). There was a frivolous question, “What makes you… Continue reading →
Electric cars available for hire to visitors to Brecon Beacons
Visitors to the Brecon Beacons National Park will have a green way to travel around during their stay in 2012. It will be both low energy and environmentally friendly, and, for this year at least, distinctively French. Tourism in the area is a high energy business. Visitors to the park currently average 50 car miles… Continue reading →