Fun and Interesting Things that have Happened on Planes

I often find that planes and airports can be interesting places. I've long felt that I do some of my best writing while flying. Being removed from my everyday life, having the time to think and being faced with so many people from all over the world put me in a reflective mood. But apart...

On Buses, Brexit and Bad English

Call me cynical, but I’m convinced that the people who work on trains and buses derive some sick pleasure from making people wait to board. I don’t know how many times I’ve stood on a platform with thirty other commuters, all of us glaring at a man in a reflective vest clutching a clipboard and...

Barcelona, the Second Time

September 2016 I had first come to Barcelona three years earlier as a tourist. I’d waited for two hours to get into La Sagrada Familia, done the obligatory walk up and down Las Ramblas, shuffled through Parc Guell with hordes of other sun-baked camera-wielders, and dropped by Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona, for a...

Welcome to the Land of Harry Potter (Probably Not the One You’re Thinking of…)

J.K. Rowling moved to Porto, married a Portuguese man and gave birth to a baby girl. When she wasn't working her job as an English teacher, she liked to sit in the Majestic Café and write stories. After her marriage broke down, she packed up and returned to England with her child. Her stint in...