In my father's generation there was a lot of talk about "the Golden Fleece". This symbolised the reward of a quest for education in Europe. In a sense it valorised education to mythic proportions, equating it with Jason's exploits and achievements, all against the odds. In the same breath, alongside this talk of "the Golden…
Travel
Hadrian’s Wall
We walked from Brocotia to Limestone Corner. It was the rarest day for the North East, warm, bright and even the breeze was not bracing! This was my first time walking any part of Hadrian's Wall. Looking north towards Scotland, the Cheviots about forty miles away, rose gently in the background. The land rose and…
Literary walks: Brontës & Plath
The drive into Haworth was all uphill, past Peckett Well into Oxenhope, the church of St Mary the Virgin, to our left and Bay Horse pub further up. Then downhill into Haworth. We parked by the station and walked the cobbled Lower Mill Hill Farm Road and across and up into Main Street. It…
Afro-Cubans in Lagos: Hilario Campos & Feliberto Muniz
In Leonardo Padura’s Havana Fever (part of Havana Quartet) the protagonist, Mario Conde has now retired from the Police Force and works as an antique dealer, specialising in books, whilst still investigating crime. Padura's Cuban noir is next to Pedro Juan Gutiérrez’s Dirty Havana Trilogy as introduction to Castro’s Havana. In relation to…
Continue reading ➞ Afro-Cubans in Lagos: Hilario Campos & Feliberto Muniz
Lagos: Eko Ile
Mary Kingsley (1862-1900) travelled in West Africa from 1893-95. Her description of the mangrove swamps along the Nigerian coast is definitely the best that I have encountered There is an uniformity in the habits of West African rivers, from the Volta to the Coanza, which is, when you get…
Vienna
The walk from the hotel to the U-bahn took in rows of tenement buildings. In one of them there was a congregation of young men, all white Austrian, some with muzzled dogs – very unpleasant and intimidating. It was one of those situations when I look inwards and studiously avoid eye contact. I felt restrained…
Braga
We drove up to Bom Jesus do Monte after lunch. The road wound up with hairpin bends. I sat with my back to the hills, facing the church as the 3 o’clock bell rang. It was a euphonic display of dash and parry, of clash and feint. All too short, brief and seductive as push…
Lagos
We are in the Algarve. Today, our last day here we caught the free bus from Rocha Brava to Carvoeiro. It stopped at the beach, the Praia. We had lunch: chicken baguette for me, salad for Jan. Then we took the coastal path back. From Carvoeiro you can look back at Lagos. Today Lagos…
Icefield Parkway
The Athabasca Waterfall lies on the Icefield Parkway. It is just there, shortly after you join the Parkway from Jasper. The water falls down a canyon and flows into a lake. The colour is turbid blue from the rock flour that the waterfall has ground down along its course. The canyon is itself surrounded by…
Ephesus
Turunc is a small town with a post office, a mosque and a main street. The centre of town revolves round the bay, dirty brown sandy beach and the most wonderful sea blue sea that you have ever seen. The curve of mountains, the Bozburun nips it at the waist, a maiden's waist at…
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