This blog started as a self-advertisement, the idea being to generate interest in or at least awareness of my book about cycle touring in France – France On Two Wheels. I also seem to be using it as a dropbox for unused travel articles, having lost quite a few recently on a crashed computer. It gives me the luxury to write what I like and tinker with it to my heart’s content, but deprives me of the chance to blame editors and subeditors. I have promised not to write anything rude about my friends, fellow travel writers or anyone else. There is more than enough rage on the internet without a contribution from me. But if a little rant makes me feel better and saves my dogs a kicking, why not?
Up the Downs
My base camp at the foot of the Lambourn Downs (north side) is well placed for bike rides up to the Ridgeway – short bursts of exertion that raise the pulse rate in beautiful surroundings. There are more than a … Continue reading
Golf and covid: the new abnormal
At least the lockdown spared us the torture of golf. Tasting an unfamiliar hint of serenity in the mixed salad of my mood, I can only attribute it to an absence of missed tiddlers and sliced drives onto the railway … Continue reading
Time to rediscover old favourites
A PR contacts me, having been alerted by google to an article of mine that has just appeared on the Telegraph Travel website, mentioning a client of hers, Le Touquet. She isn’t a subscriber to Telegraph Premium or whatever it’s … Continue reading
On the George Sand trail
This morning’s Radio 4 Lord Bragg show about George Sand took me back to my first university year, when someone on my staircase had a sophisticated American girlfriend with a drawl that might have been Charleston, Boston or Vivien Leigh … Continue reading
Settling down
Puppy class week 3 I’m on my own this week and arrive late and flustered, coaxing Percy into the hall with all her bits and pieces under my arm. Bed, lead, water, bowl ….. oh no – I’ve forgotten the … Continue reading
Practice makes Percy
Here beginneth the second lesson. The pod drapes have been pulled back a little, allowing our puppies to rub noses through the bars of the cage. Or bark like hell, in Percy’s case. ‘Close Percy’s curtain please,’ says our trainer … Continue reading
Percy goes to school
At 6.45 on a damp autumn evening, 15 minutes early (as instructed), six young dogs and their human appendages have assembled outside a village hall in West Oxfordshire. For our rescue puppy Percy, not quite 3 months and not … Continue reading
The World in 2000 Pieces
Seriously impressed by God. 6 days to get this thing done was nothing short of a miracle. Two weeks in, we’re still looking for the polar bear’s nose. On the first day He made the edges. Then Antarctica and the … Continue reading
Golf rules, OK?
My golf buddy and I took advantage of spring-like conditions on New Year’s Day to lock horns and put the new rules to the test on our local course. The idea, or part of it, is to speed up play, … Continue reading
Better than sex
Confirmation from my sleeping partner that valeta (‘servant going to a dance’) is a kind of waltz gave me v as the third letter of ‘it was in form when young’. Since I already had L, e and … Continue reading