Villages Made Me
1963. Leeds
I was born in a house with wooden floors and an open-plan kitchen. It was located in a rural area by Leeds called Little London. I have flickering memories of a white coat with bloodstains, people standing around …
A critical look at backpackers
As I looked out of the window of my dormitory I thought this must be the smallest capital city in the world.
The only traffic was an occasional tractor, or a truck, moving at walking pace, and lots of …
Bizarre Airport Experiences
I travel a lot by plane even though it’s environmentally destructive and increasingly boring. Airports in places like Bucharest or Tirana used to be so different from anything we’d seen in the west – the airport terminal in Tirana, a …
Tibet and Nepal
I want to describe my last visit to Nepal, a fascinating little Himalayan country.
Thirty years have passed since I was last in Kathmandu. My presence there was both dramatic — I had been kicked out of Tibet — but …
Diary of my Scottish Book Tour
Some rather ridiculous impressions from my recent bike/book tour in Scotland…in diary format. The photo above is of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, taken in 1987 by my friend Uli Zimmerman.
20 October, Edinburgh
Today I will fly to …
