Sacred Combe Safari III Day 2 They arrived in darkness and dined in darkness, the sounds of the bush all around them, but no one had any idea what the damn place actually looked like. They were weary after 24 hours of aeroplanes followed by a two hour drive, and most of that in the… [Read More]
The Great Norfolk Champagne Mystery
There are mysteries surrounding the most humdrum of lives. Even mine. A parcel arrived this week, forwarded from my previous address. Not a quick process, so perhaps it was something to do with Christmas. I opened it without excitement, expecting a couple of ghosted autobiographies of footballers or perhaps a guide to the golf courses… [Read More]
Bucket-list buffalo
I’ve always wanted to see a buffalo. By that I mean the American bison. But I didn’t know that. It came to me as a bit of a surprise. I was in Badlands National Park, in South Dakota, where I was researching a piece for Intelligent Life magazine. Here is one of the world’s fantastical… [Read More]
An adventure
Shall we go the Oi Way? Or the Adventure Way? This Proustian question always has to be asked when Eddie and I set off for a paddle in the canoe. The Adventure Way goes out of town and is wilder; the Oi Way takes us under two bridges, so you can, of course, shout oiiiii!… [Read More]
A clubbable man
I had lunch at the Reform Club the other day. Of all places. “And here’s where Phileas Fogg struck his great bet in Around the World In 80 Days…” Funky old place, then. I was guest of Mark Avery, who is fed up with being described as “former conservation director of the RSPB”. He’s independent… [Read More]
Free as a bird
I’m just back from family hols in Cornwall where I spent a lot of time sitting on a particular cliff-top rock with my younger boy, looking out at the Atlantic, observing its changing moods and cheering every time we saw a clouded yellow butterfly. Every so often there’d be a call, a caw with a… [Read More]
The end of an era
Boxers say that it’s the punch you never saw that does the damage, and I certainly didn’t see this one coming. But as I write these words on the last day of my 32 years writing for The Times, I have to point out I haven’t been completely destroyed. In fact, I’m beginning to feel… [Read More]