Travel
How not to pitch in LA
I took a trip to Hollywood because I’m a budding screenwriter. ‘Budding’ in this context means ‘unsuccessful’. Here’s Tennessee Williams on…
Stay in the picture
1. Das Central, AustriaIt’s not a Bond film without a snow scene and Sam Mendes’s choice of location for Spectre…
Green Hills, great apes
Here’s my first proper view of Rwanda: an improbably blue lake, endless hills striped with different shades of green stretching into…
Sweet taste of danger
Mr and Mrs Smith: they have nothing on us. Their conflict, mere child’s play. Because since moving to America last…
Lifted by the light
Sorry, T.S. Eliot, you got it wrong — January, not April, is the cruellest month. Post-Christmas torpor mixed with back-to-work…
Globe Trotting
1. Pumphouse Point, Tasmania Once used for hydroelectricity, this newly renovated 1940s building is now a hotel in the southern…
The great divide
Last year my wife Holly and I moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, a stunning colonial town nestled in the Shenandoah mountains.…
Globe Trotting
1. Kakslauttanen, Finland Bedding down in a glass igloo to watch the northern lights? Sounds like a dream weekend. Though…
Fantasy Islands
First, we flew to the celebrity fantasy island of St Barts, one of the four French islands comprising the French…
Screen Time
Peering up at the First Amendment of the US Constitution chiselled in foot-high letters into the facade of Washington DC’s…
Globe Trotting
1. Ham Yard Hotel, LondonFirmdale’s latest venture is hidden away on a quiet street only seconds from Piccadilly Circus. It…
Cowboy comforts
How did I get myself into this? I’m halfway up a mountain in Montana, wrestling with a pair of cross-country…
Springs break
If LA can feel like a strange place, Palm Springs, 80 miles east into the desert, is frankly bizarre. Its…
Under African skies
Straight off the night flight to Nairobi, red-eyed, your clothes like a second skin, you are greeted in the clammy…
The new old world
Franschhoek — French Corner — is a place which serves South Africans as a kind of sophisticated fantasy, an alternative…
Estate secrets
In the lower right quadrant of Da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’, a seven-arch bridge is pictured: this is the Ponte Buriano…
Island Of The Blessed
I see no reason to lie, so I will confess. I first fell in love with Bermuda as a teenager, when…
Geek Gods
Most children grow up worshipping footballers or pop stars. My idol was Robert X. Cringley — a four-eyed alpha nerd,…
Port in a storm
Once I’d Googled Trancoso and seen the words ‘boho’ and ‘Naomi Campbell’ attached to it, I didn’t want to go.…
Globe Trotting
1 — Kurá, Osa / Bahia BallenaA truly spectacular Costa Rican jungle eco-retreat. Hold court from your hammock or look…
Mountain High
Prettier than the French Alps, closer than the States, credited with being the home of modern slalom skiing, and with…
The Rhino Sleeps Tonight
Nothing prepares you for its size, nor the feel of its skin under your hand. I am standing in the…
Globe Trotting
01 — Castello di Casole, TuscanyDo Tuscany in style by staying in the boutique hotel housed in this historic castle.…
Globe Trotting
01 — Corinthia Hotel, LondonEach of the seven penthouses follows a different theme. This one, the Musician’s, has a grand…
Yacht or Not?
The Mediterranean is ideal for boatlife. No tides; settled weather; warm water. Out in the breeze, away from the lines…