Canada:

A Little America & Canada Road Trip

28 August 2022 | Places

With British travel journalist Simon Calder I made a classic North American road trip, five days and 1,148 miles from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Fargo, North Dakota. In name at least in a classic American road trip car as well, a dark blue Chevrolet Malibu. Although they...

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Flying to Mexico

13 March 2014 | Transport

The wonders of flying ‘Great Circle’ routes never cease to amaze me. You fly between Australia and southern Africa (Jo’burg say) or southern South America (Buenos Aires) and a glance at the map and you think it’s straight across the Indian Ocean or the southern South ...

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A Tale for the Time Being

16 January 2014 | Media

Ruth Ozeki’s mysterious novel was a short list contender for the 2013 Booker Prize. The other 2013 contender I’ve read was Colum McCann’s TransAtlantic, which only made the long list. I was particularly interested in that one because of its connections with the first ...

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Argo & the missing Paykans

12 December 2012 | Media

▲ Paykans and the Ayatollah in Isfahan OK it’s a movie, not a book or an article – I went to see Argo the Ben Affleck film about getting six American diplomats out of Tehran during the 1980 Iran ‘hostage crisis’. Great movie although it’s been criticised for glor...

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Sites of Impact

1 February 2012 | Media

▲ Wolfe Creek Crater, Western Australia Every now and then I pick up a ‘got to go there’ book, you read it or look at the pictures and that’s what you immediately think. Judith Schalansky’s Atlas of Remote Islands was a fine example, she claimed she hadn’t been t...

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