A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to walk to the northern tip of Gozo: one of those summer walks on small Mediterranean islands where, after a while, your feet barely seem to be touching the gr

I was in Normandy between March 3rd and March 6th 2008. In bitter cold. (March has been a stone month in this corner of Europe; steady snow fell throughout Eastern and Northern Britain on March 23rd — Easter Day.)

I received the two photographs posted below on February 19th from Konstantina Chryssou Hatzidakis on Santorini: the island in snow. Konstantina tells me that the children are loving it. When I remember the intense physical weight of the heat when I was there last summer, the calorie-thickened air slowing every gesture, and bearing in mind the rarity with which small islands get snowed on, especially at almost 36° latitude in the Mediterranean, the scenes seemed astonishing.

Writing about places on earth, and the foods, drinks and scents connected with them, necessitates travel.

Travelling, though, is no longer an innocent activity. Humans are adjusting the disposition of gases in the world’s atmosphere and pushing vulnerable species (and eventually, perhaps, the less vulnerable too) into premature extinction. Part of the way in which we are doing that is by reckless travel.

to follow

I’ve spent the last four days in St Emilion and Pomerol.

I journeyed to Bulgaria between July 3rd and the 5th this year. My previous journey to Bulgaria had been … well, when exactly?

Readers of the previous post will find me in a fretful frame of mind. Here are some sunnier recollections.

Last week I travelled to Santorini — or, in Greek and on many maps, Thira.

I was in China between May 22nd and June 1st 2007. Links to some of the print and radio work which followed this visit are given at the end of this blog entry.