Hail to the land of volcanic rubble and burnt spots

I mean ice and fire, obviously. To wit, Iceland. I’m not in Iceland now. I’m in Australia, settling back into…

Dear Penelope….

Dear Penelope, Recently I have spent a week staying with my hospitable cousin and his wife in the Scottish Borders,…

When Eurydice’s musician husband Orpheus jumps (or did he?) from a pleasure boat into Sydney Harbour and drowns, her first…

This is Ludo. If you’re wondering, the location is HIS decision. My daughter (who’s always alert for cats) noticed him…

After a hundred days of sunshine in southern Europe – it rained today! I never thought I’d be glad to…

Being sick, alone, abroad, is shit. Sometimes literally (my daughter got fearfully sick when we arrived in Thessaloniki on a…

I went to Crete because of a book and a puzzle. The book was Mary Renault’s The King Must Die/The…

Old bodies. Naxos has got me thinking about them because, well, they’re all over the place. Back in Oz, older…

Two stories. In 1982 a thin, brown, scantily dressed Australian girl stands by the roadside in Delphi, her thumb out…

Why is it always sunny in travel photos? Why – I call this the Instagram Effect – is it necessary…