Dervla Murphy – cycling away at Full Tilt
28 May 2022 | Living
Dervla Murphy cycled away – aged 90 – on 22 May. Her death ends an astonishing travel career, kicking off with what is still probably the best book ever written about a great bicycle ride: Full Tilt, her 1963 trip from Ireland to India. I wrote about where you could f...
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Filthy Rich, Country Girls
26 December 2015 | Media
Mohsin Hamid’s How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is a clever project. From the cover it’s yet another self-help manual, although with a racy title. Inside the chapters are arranged just like a self-help book should be, running through from ‘Move to the City,’ via ...
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Alcock & Brown – first Atlantic Crossing
28 October 2012 | Transport
Three years ago, on a visit to Galway in Ireland, I drove up the coast to the place where in 1919 pioneer aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown touched down on the first ever trans-Atlantic flight. Soon afterwards I had a look at their ungainly Vickers Vimy biplane in...
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Dolman Award Books – Take 2
25 June 2012 | Media
I’m chairing the panel of judges for the 2012 Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award, the annual award for the best British travel book. I’ve covered the first three contenders in an earlier blog. The next four on my reading list from the entrants:
When in Rome – Mat...
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Dolman Award Books
23 May 2012 | Media
I’m chairing the panel of judges for the 2012 Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award, the annual award for the best British travel book. Currently I’m working through the entries with my fellow judges Sarah Spankie of Conde Nast Traveller magazine, Susie Dowdall the Boo...
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