An Author's Notebook

Dubrovnik, jewel of the Adriatic, once a prosperous trading hub, now a tourist's dream. Our half-term visit in October to this beautiful...

Sometimes you don't realise you need a break until you're sat on a beach in the sunshine, thinking thank goodness . This was me las...

It turned out to be quite an eventful holiday. At the beginning of half term, as I finished zipping up the suitcases  and disposing of the d...

When the sun comes out at this time of year, I want to lie outside and soak up rays like a solar battery. This year, I got an early charge w...

Natural Bridges State Beach, Santa Cruz Credit: William Lam When I was a career gal, I worked in New York for about 18 months during th...

There is something about navigating through water in a small vessel that has come to symbolise our struggle as human beings. The concept of ...

Travel diary WWI sites in Belgium and France Every evening in the Belgian town of Ypres, people of all nationalities gather at the Menin ...

It's a downward slope to Christmas but a recent family trip to Gran Canaria has made me feel quite chipper about donning my winter wool...

The long days of summer are shortening and the sun has lost its satisfying sting. My kids are back at school and, after a month off, I have ...

About 10 years ago, when the kids were small, we stayed in Croyde, Devon, and it rained for the entire holiday. In fact, it bucketed down, a...

As a family, we have hit that magical sweet spot where the kids are becoming interested in the same kind of stuff as the grown-ups. In other...

For 51 weeks of the year, I rule over my children's diet with a rod of iron. Not too much sugar, oily fish twice a week, live yoghurt an...

A visitor to the Skybar, Grand Hotel Central So I have a friend who is currently sailing around the world in a yacht with her husband an...

One of my earliest memories is playing happily in a friend's garden before being unceremoniously yanked inside by our panic-stricken mot...

Earlier this year I wrote a blog about the virtues of leading an ordinary life. There was a disgruntled undertone, but basically I was givi...

Almost half a century ago, my grandmother came upon a notice in The Times  newspaper   advertising a villa for sale on the Spanish island o...

About ten days ago, I was stood on a ferry in Hong Kong's Discovery Bay, wondering what my kitchen looked like. For a few seconds (shock...

Somewhere in Tanzania there is a boy working long, tedious hours as a night watchman. Scraping together his meagre wages, he has managed to ...

It is not every day that you open your front door to find a Maasai teacher on your doorstep. About a month ago my friend Janine brought roun...

Gao Gajah: water for purifying yourself before entering the temple   Back in the late 1970s, when my parents lived in Jakarta, we used t...