Acclaimed travel articles that inform and delight with a personal slant, from Italy (Observer) to Iran (Independent), from Algeria (Sunday Times) to Australia (Independent Weekend) and from France (The Guardian) to French Polynesia (Mail on Sunday) with lots in between, from contributions published in UK and international magazines to academic books and journals. Guide to South Turkey: Associated Newspapers.

I was interviewed by John McCarthy on BBC  Radio 4’s Excess Baggage about travels in the desert. I have taken part in a TV documentary (in French).


What did you just click on? Well, it’s a long story…
Briefly, this is ancient Syriac writing, carved on a mosque in the doomed town of Hasankeyf, south east Turkey, with a history that dates back some 13,000 years, now obliterated by the Ilisu dam. Marco Polo crossed the Tigris here. Nomadic people still dot the night hills with torches in spring, leading their sheep up to summer pasture. How do I know this? Because their progress was the only light I could make out when I turned up on a bus at 1 a.m. with nowhere to stay…