Notes on…

Notes on… Eastern Germany

26 April 2014 9:00 am

Ever since the Berlin Wall came down, I’ve been pottering around eastern Germany, where my father’s family came from, and…

Where it's all kicking off in Athens nightlife

19 April 2014 9:00 am

Where in the developed world can you ride a moped, minus helmet, at 2 a.m. under the noses of weary…

Reading: it’s not as solitary as you might think

Book clubs

12 April 2014 9:00 am

Everyone knows somebody who belongs to a book club. From informal gatherings of bookish friends in living rooms and cafés…

Secrets of Sicily

5 April 2014 9:00 am

Western Sicily has been a crucible of aspiration and grandeur: the human condition at its most exalted: unsurpassable art and…

The right way to see Madrid

29 March 2014 9:00 am

I got Madrid utterly wrong for quite a long time. It’s a lovely city to walk in, and I thought…

Marte Armitage's ‘Cobweb’ in turquoise and taupe, available at Hamilton Weston

I never thought I'd write about wallpaper. But I'd never seen wallpaper like Marthe Armitage's

22 March 2014 9:00 am

Every night, while my husband reads by screen-light, my mind runs like an invisible rat two miles north to the…

Paris

15 March 2014 9:00 am

No city really multitasks like Paris, shorthand for romance, culture, fashion, gastronomy and the kind of street life you find…

notes-on-venice-lithograph

Notes on... Venice

8 March 2014 9:00 am

For Henry James it was ‘the repository of consolations’. Wordsworth, an earlier visitor, called it ‘the eldest child of liberty’.…

The great art of country houses is still getting better

1 March 2014 9:00 am

Last year 114,000 people flocked to Houghton Hall in north Norfolk for a once-in-a lifetime opportunity. Part of the great…

You’ll think you’ve gone to heaven: Lynmouth pier

A perfect haven of peace in north Devon

22 February 2014 9:00 am

It was late September. My wife and I were feeling overworked and overstressed — our mental states not helped by…

The Marche

15 February 2014 9:00 am

When I first visited the Marche a dozen years ago, folk who knew about such things tapped their noses and…

Valentine’s Day

8 February 2014 9:00 am

One of the many things I love about my wife is that she doesn’t make me do anything for Valentine’s…

Bantry Bay

South-west Ireland

1 February 2014 9:00 am

Of course one feels free on a holiday: that’s what holidays are for. But I have rarely felt freer than…

Golf in the Algarve

25 January 2014 9:00 am

My second tee shot soared high and straight, then hurtled down towards the lake; a repeat of my first. I…

Amsterdam

18 January 2014 9:00 am

‘What are people in your country saying about Holland these days?’ one Dutch friend recently asked me. I hadn’t the…

Gardens for all seasons

11 January 2014 9:00 am

Winter garden visiting is a solitary pastime, lending itself to the misanthrope, and is highly recommended. When it’s so cold…

The pleasures of the Dordogne

4 January 2014 9:00 am

Call me a trencherman or worse, but I tend to think of the Dordogne as a giant restaurant-cum-farm shop, set…

Music in Vienna

14 December 2013 9:00 am

There is no finer city in which to hear music than Vienna. Or, to put it more felicitously, there is…