Heaven and earth seem closer here than they do in the city
Watching the Islay weather
Tag: Scotland
My Basil Fawlty years: a cautionary tale
I've belatedly got round to posting a story about my adventures in the hotel business which I did for CNN Travel earlier this year (2020), at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown. You can read it on their website using the link below. I've also copied it below in case they take it down. I … Continue reading My Basil Fawlty years: a cautionary tale
Mayflies
The capacity to trigger unsettling emotions is part of the dangerous beauty of books and grief can resurface as smoothly and silently as a seal.
Insurrection: Scotland’s Famine Winter
Highland historian Jim Hunter's, Insurrection: Scotland's Famine Winter, had a particular resonance for me. The Hebrides and the Moray Firth, two of the main locations in his account of what happened after the potato blight arrived in Scotland in the summer of 1846, provided the backdrop to my childhood. As a young boy, I'd scramble … Continue reading Insurrection: Scotland’s Famine Winter
A Winter Trip to Spain, Day 9: Why I was wrong about Spanish food and about kids and ketchup
Why I have recanted my views on Spanish food, and about kids and ketchup
ON ISLAY TIME 