I was commissioned to write a guide book of my home county, Nottinghamshire, by Kingfisher Publishing. This covered all aspects of life in Nottinghamshire, from shopping to sports to where to dine out. You can view an e-version of this here. Tweet
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Antibes & Juan les Pines
It’s the schizophrenic nature of my existence as a freelance journalist that I find myself one day covering the world’s largest real estate exhibition in Cannes, the next walking along the ancient stone walls of Antibes, only 12 minutes away by chugger train but in an utterly different world. I had arrived filled with a sort of neurotic momentum. That forced pace that always builds up during a week of tearing around the miles of temporarily-carpeted drags between the row upon row of neon stands of the Palais des Festivales in Cannes. – But the further I walked through the still stones and flowered walls of Antibes, the slower…
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In pictures: Belfast
I took a trip to Belfast in January, to write a feature for TNT Magazine (due to be published in February). Here are some of the pictures I took, of the city centre, the Peace Walls, the Harland & Wolff docks where Titanic was built and a few other sights to be found wandering around this wonderful place.. [Show slideshow] 12► Tweet
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In pictures: Bordeaux
In September I spent a blissful few days in Bordeaux, exploring this gorgeous town by myself with a notebook and camera in hand. Here’s the article I wrote for TNT Magazine, and below are some of the pictures I took… Tweet
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TNT Mag, April 2014: Travelling can say more about what you’re leaving….
This article was picked up by TNT Magazine in April 2014 One summer day two years ago I heaved a rucksack over my shoulder and set off on the trip of a lifetime. Over the next month I sat on train after train, either alone or thrown in with some truly colourful company, whizzing between some of the great European cities: Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Warsaw, on to Moscow, through the wilderness of Siberia, the plains of Outer Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, the lush greenery of China’s countryside and the madness of its colossal cities, until finally my last ride ground to a standstill in Hanoi and I stepped down onto…
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On Tour With The Jezabels – TNT Magazine, December 2012
A recent article of mine which appeared in TNT Magazine. I followed indie band The Jezabels for a few days on tour through Portugal and Spain, and this was the result Tweet
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The Wonders of Europe by Rail – Rail Europe Blog, October 2012
You can read a brief extract from the European leg of my London to Vietnam by rail trip in the summer of 2012, which appeard on the Rail Europe Blog, the ‘Train of Thought’. Tweet
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Culinary Adventures on the Trans Siberian Foodway – October 2012
An article I wrote on the weird and wonderful food I ate along my trip from London to Vietnam by rail has appeared on the We Blog the World Website Tweet
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Destinations Travel Magazine/Traveldudes, October issue: ’10 Tips for the lone traveller’
This article originally appeard in the October issue of ‘Destinations Travel Magazine‘, a major international travel site and a Kred ‘Top 50 Travel Blogger Sites’; and here on Traveldudes, a well known travel site with a huge social networking following. 10 TIPS FOR THE LONE TRAVELLER It can be utterly bewildering taking on a new city, metro system or train station alone. You arrive aching, dizzy and drenched in sweat, the only traveller among thousands, where nobody knows you or gives a damn, unable to find your hostel, bus or train, and not even knowing how to begin to ask a passer-by for help. But remember, there’s always a solution.…
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Wimdu & Travel Dudes Competition – Finalist!
I was nominated as a finalist in the Wimdu & Travel Dudes ‘City I Love’ Competition! One of my blogs, ‘Hectic, Electric, Magnetic, Hanoi’ was put forward to the last 10 out of hundreds of entries after the organisers asked writers to submit articles explaining what they love so much about their chosen cities. Thanks Wimdu and Travel Dudes, looking forward to spending my voucher! Tweet
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‘Track Records’
In June and July I took my biggest trip to date, a 10,000 mile adventure from London to Vietnam entirely by train. In two months of intense travelling I went through Paris, Brussels, Bremen, Berlin, Poznan, Warsaw, Vilnius, St Petersburg and then Moscow. From there I boarded the Trans Siberian Railway, through Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude and on into Ulan Bator, Mongolia. All that was left from there was Beijing, Guilin in Southern China, and finally the last big stretch was Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. While I was travelling I wrote all the time; notes, thoughts, stories and dramas. A portion of these writings appeard in the form of a…
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Hectic, Electric, Magnetic, Hanoi
If I had to do one thing for the rest of time, I would walk the streets of Hanoi. There’s magic in those streets, where every sense tingles with a vivid intensity. The colours, sights, smells and sounds you take in with every step and the thunderstorm of motorbikes and taxis that explodes every day. And the food, ah the food. Those delicate but powerful flavours of the noodles cooked just that little bit differently in each street restaurant, the little baguettes with a myriad of mysterious fillings or the barbecued pork that smokes as it grills on a street corner in the warm evening air. Perhaps it’s the feisty…
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Au revoir for now..
Dear all.. so it’s official now I’m going on a big trip (or maybe a farce) starting in two weeks, travelling from the UK to Vietnam by rail, including the Trans Siberian Railway. It’s a reckless ‘end of 20s meltdown’, during which I will be spending a disturbing amount of time in small train carriages with questionable toilet facilities and no doubt a good cross-section of bodily odours. Can’t wait. And before I go I was wondering if peeps might be able to give me some tips…. Tweet
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Into the vortex: the train to London
You can feel the energy around you change as you approach London. It’s something in the atmosphere; the pressure rises and the speed increases as though you were approaching some great vortex. The view out of the window of the train becomes busier, harder, greyer, denser. The eyes have less space to see out to and more details to focus on. Perhaps it’s just nerves. It’s a journey I’ve taken too many times to count but more often than not there’s some big reason to be going back to the city I lived in for four years, the place where my career began. Usually it’s a bit of work that’s…
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Burnt out and daydreaming on the TGV
St Pancras stood cool and strong, a serene rock. I cursed my own bad planning and dashed red-faced from platform to platform, as though if I moved stealthily enough I might be able to slope across the grand old station and avoid its disapproving stare. It had hardly been the smartest preparation for another big slog. I’d only groaned through the front door eight hours ealier, ragged and feeble after a day of travelling, and already the four o’clock alarm was screeching in my ear. It was pointless setting one, looking back. I had hardly sunk into anything more than a thin stream of unconsciousness during those three or so…
