You've found the right place - welcome to my peripatetic world.

For over 20 years I’ve been lucky enough to circle the globe for a living, writing and taking pictures between encounters with monks, maharajas or mountain shepherds.

Travel-lust has always been part of me and my family (for more on this read ‘About’) although writing a string of hefty guide-books in the 1990s lured me deep beneath the surface of several major cultures. Time has brought huge development in my favourite countries (Mexico, India, Morocco) - for better or for worse - while I maintain a strong affinity for places I’ve actually lived in - London, Paris, central Italy and Australia. Another region I can't resist returning to is Andalucia, where I now have a retreat in the olive groves. That magic never fails.

Slowly slowly the threads pull together and the jigsaw of civilisations becomes clearer. China still eludes me but I’ve at last discovered the heart of the Middle East with all its highs and tragic lows. Increasingly I find myself in places I visited decades ago, prompting a dabbling with memory, not quite Proust’s madeleine, more Dunlop’s Tempranillo – except when it’s enforced mint-tea.

This brings me to my parallel passion for food and gastro-communication. Sometimes I feel I could follow the example of ethically minded friends, put a stop to my carbon bootprint and concentrate on the dozen or so ethnic restaurants cooking up delectable stuff near my north London home. But it’s hard to forego those intense hours spent shadowing Moroccan cooks in their kitchens, being amazed by Zapotec techniques in Oaxaca, sampling Burmese street-food in the shade of a Banyan tree or, like a stuffed goose, being fed tapa after tapa by a chef in Seville. It’s a tough call and, as yet, I’m not ready to stop. Apologies to the planet meanwhile.

So hit the trail with me. Click on my irregular blog, on pictures of my travels or on my travel stories. Enjoy the journey – there and here – and come back again soon!