Glasgow - Her Magazine

VisitBritain section and overall winner: Cathay Pacific Travel Media Awards 2009

"I’m embarrassed by Glasgow," says the car hire man in Edinburgh. When pressed for a reason, he just shrugs and mutters, "You’ll see," but I know already. Edinburgh people have always looked down on Glasgow...

Edinburgh - New Zealand Herald

VisitBritain section runner-up: Cathay Pacific Travel Media Awards 2009

It was an ordinary-looking notebook, pocket-sized, dog-eared and old. The cover, worn smooth in places and embossed in faded gold, was made of brown leather, in texture a little like pigskin – except it wasn’t. It was human skin...

City Slickers - The Listener

When the sandstorm struck soon after 1am, we had all been tucked up in our tents, which were pitched in military rows on a red gibber plain in South Australia’s outback. Apparently, there had been lightning, but the first I knew was a sudden clatter as the wall billowed in and knocked over the bedside stool, sending the lantern flying...

Ice Maidens, Condors and Barbed-Wire Undies - Destinations

Meeting fourteen year-old Juanita is a chilling experience in more ways than one. Outside lies the lovely white-walled city of Arequipa, its central square bright with flowers, busy with people and pigeons, full of sunshine, life and colour. Inside, in a dark room so cold I can see my breath, I am looking through two layers of glass at the curled-up body of a girl who took her last breath on a mountain-top more than 500 years ago...

Going on a Bear Hunt - Next magazine

She was so casual about it. "Oh," she added as she turned back to watch her children climbing up a huge rock in the middle of the dried-out lake bed, "we did see a bear, though." Partly it was her nonchalance that took my breath away, but mainly it was the random chance that had brought me to this particular corner of Yosemite National Park at this particular moment, and led me to speak to the one person who could help me achieve my goal...

The Great NZ Trek - Press

There’s nothing like a serendipitous bit of musical accompaniment to gild the moment: after a day’s ride on a willing horse through Northland’s calendar country, a dinner of roast pork with perfect crackling followed by strawberry shortcake and a classic sunset into the sea, I’m tucked up snugly in my tent. I can hear the trill of night-time cicadas...