| |
 |
|
F iona Dunlop has been writing on travel, the arts and food since 1990, indulging and fine-tuning a passion for culture worldwide.
|
Born overlooking the Pacific outside Sydney, Australia, she grew up in the more sedate setting of London, UK. Childhood journeys by ship between the hemispheres soon gave her an insatiable appetite for the colours, heat, humanity and dust of the tropics.
After graduating from Sussex University, she moved to Italy for two years where she was initiated into the joys of excellent food and wine. That period also saw her first eastward exodus through Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan (before the Russian invasion of 1979 when it was paradise on earth) to Pakistan. This was by classic VW van with memorable Italian eccentrics for company. Bandits, more good food, people-smuggling (in a positive way) and total ingenuousness characterised the journey. |
|
|
Next came a Parisian interlude that was to last 18 years, apart from a fast and furious interlude in Monte Carlo. In Paris, after working in fashion and contemporary art, Fiona moved into journalism, initially on the arts, then on Paris itself, and later on foreign forays. Assignments took her to obvious places such as Provence and Spain (where she has also lived intermittently) as well as far-flung countries like Indonesia, India, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Cambodia and Vietnam. As she was often on the road for two to three months at a stretch in that lost era pre-internet and cheap phones, communications with home were a mainly silent affair. Postcards generally did the trick.
Since moving back to London in 1996, she continues to chalk up new destinations while contributing to British and European publications as well as writing books on travel, design and food culture. With this latter direction, Fiona is convinced that gastro- communication is the perfect gateway into people's lives. Nobody is immune to their palate - and that can be universally shared.
|
|
