A PLACE FOR SIDEWAYS TRAINS OF THOUGHT
Last year I stood on a corner at a crossroads in Hanoi where a stream of motorcycles, scooters and mopeds was going east to west and another south to north and both flows were heading for each other. A crash seemed inevitable, unless one stream suddenly gave way. But as if it were a baffling... Continue Reading →
When beginning as an interpreter many years ago , I was reminded that “Ivory Coast” was a name to be avoided as the authorities of that state insisted on it always being called by the French name Côte d’Ivoire. 2.Côte d’Ivoire is now a rather strange name since the ivory trade is prohibited. 3. A... Continue Reading →
Many years ago I spent several weeks in the Sahara desert. One part of the trip was a journey from Tamanrasset to the oasis of Djanet. About seven hundred kilometres as I recall. There was no road then, just pistes and only four or five places along the route where one could get water. One... Continue Reading →
This is the third time this has happened to me. I open the Rome bus app (Roma Bus), click on the tab to check the route of a bus (it was the 32 this time) and a screen appears with a map of a large part of North-West Africa. Are there secret bus routes running... Continue Reading →
A city where nothing is ever at the same angle I love Naples and the Neapolitan language. Walking around Naples in May 2017, I came across this street where nothing appeared to be at the same angle. It seemed to me to depict, not just physically, one of the characteristics of Naples which make it... Continue Reading →
Listen to the poem here On my last day in Mexico, Mexico City bade farewell to me before I had had time to pack my bags. I looked for water late at night and every road performed a drum-roll down each side— shop-shutters closing, clanging, just for me— Goodbye, good luck and most of all... Continue Reading →
In the 1990’s, when the grandfather of the current Kim was North Korea’s Great Leader, I spent a week in Pyongyang working as an interpreter for the Italian delegation at a huge conference which was attended by most of the world’s nations. I have decided to note down what I remember now, before the place... Continue Reading →
When the British assembled their empire, they took their games and sports and moustaches with them, even to the hottest places. Some people were bemused, as in this anecdote, relayed by Jan Morris in her book Hong Kong, when discussing the early days of the colony. An old tale tells of the Chinese gentleman who,... Continue Reading →
Recently, I came across an article published in 1945 in the New Yorker entitled “Return to Place Pigalle”, where Joseph Wechsberg, originally from Czechoslovakia, describes returning to Paris as a US soldier and meeting the musicians he used to play with there in the 1920’s. The musicians describe the experience of playing in Nazi-occupied Paris and leds to... Continue Reading →
