My Time in East Berlin

My Time in East Berlin

East Berlin was controlled by the Russians until 1989. It no longer exists. I spent some time there many years ago, on my way to Asia. This is how I described it in my first travel book, 9 Months in...
Travelling in the Time of the Coronavirus

Travelling in the Time of the Coronavirus

My heart goes out to everyone who’s stuck at home feeling bored and worried. I’m the only person on the train from Brighton to London. Usually you can’t find a seat at this time of the morning (10:42 departure). The...
My Coronavirus Diary

My Coronavirus Diary

At first I was like Trump – in denial – but when it became clear, except to the most diehard conspiracy theorists, that this wasn’t just another seasonal flu I realised that self-isolation and lockdown were essential. “Easy,” I thought,...

Hitching is eco-friendly and fascinating

My Romanian sister in law was rather horrified to hear that I wanted to take her 12-year old daughter hitching. But she’s open-minded enough to realise that the chances of robbery, rape or abduction — or any of the horrors …

I use Time Travel to Cut my Emissions

When I was in Romania last month I discovered time travel. I know this sounds ridiculous — isn’t time travel a futuristic, high-tech impossibility used by the likes of Doctor Who and the crazy professor in Back to the Future?…