Simon Barnes Author and Journalist

Sacred Combe Safari IV Day 2 Our guests were now all settled in the splendid riverside accommodation at Tafika. Chris and I were in staff quarters, but this time we were sharing a small house, and it was great. The walls of the separate rooms didn’t reach the top – there was a metal roof… [Read More]

Sacred Combe Safari IV Day 1, part 2 I had to make a decision on behalf of our guests, and all I had done so far was say hello and welcome. I had to take a punt on what kind of guests they were and why they had chosen to come to the Luangwa Valley. … [Read More]

Sacred Combe Safari IV Day 1 Try and get there before the guests. At least a day. Like a good warm-up before the big match: get your eye in, get your ear in, get tuned in to the sights and sounds of the Luangwa Valley in Zambia. So we – that’s me and Chris, co-leader… [Read More]

It was the 26th day of Wild June and I was running out of days to be wild on. But there I was, catching a train to London even though it was promising to be lovely weather. Even the Stour estuary seemed short on wildness that morning: just a cloud or crowd of gull and… [Read More]

Wild June is best enjoyed from the back of a horse. Like most other months. We had walked down the shallow slope to the flood-plain and as we reached the grassy path we rolled into a canter without discussing the matter, for Miakoda, my American Paint mare, knows both the place and the routine as… [Read More]

22nd of July

f you sit out in a wild place with a birder, birds will be noted, no matter how big the subject you are discussing. You could even be talking about England’s chances in the women’s World Cup or England’s defeat in the cricket World Cup — but if a nice bird appears, it will be… [Read More]

A butterfly mind. To us, that means silly, inconstant, flighty, unable to concentrate on one thing for more than a second, always flying off to look at something more interesting – and then going back to the first thing, or maybe another even newer thing.  I seem to have spent most of this Wild June… [Read More]

Once again Wild June had me racing towards London with a book to promote. I was reading Ulysses as the train rattled south and west from Norfolk: the following day was June 16: Bloomsday: the day on which the fictional action of Ulysses takes place, and on which those who love the book will raise… [Read More]

First, apologies. Fallen behind with the blog. Book promotions, lots of running around, little time to look or listen, and even less time to write. So it goes. Yesterday I was in Cromer, for a Jarrolds literary lunch, and in the middle of it I had to take a long call to interview, well, a… [Read More]