It was The Killing’s Sarah Lund, with her exemplary knitwear and sixth sense for scenting out serial killers and political conspiracies, who first made me fall for Copenhagen…

If I didn’t know better, I could’ve sworn I’d wound up in a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Tallinn’s Old Town hardly seems of this world, let alone this century…

Great Expectations has been brought to the screen many times before and all with varying degrees of success – from the definitive, faithful 1946 version starring John Mills and Valerie Hobson, the BBC’s recent atmospheric slow-burner, to the questionable contemporary adaptation of 1997 (Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke took the leads) [...]

“My favourite moments in Paris are when I feel I’m bushing right up against its golden age – that early 20th century heyday when Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso and a pantheon of other cultural icons roamed…”

“Whether it’s gorging on hot cross buns for Easter, tucking into neeps and tatties on Burns’ Night or seeing in the Chinese New Year with spring rolls and a few glasses of Jiu, I’m never one to turn down a food-related festival…”

“There’s that moment after dessert when the restaurant owner wheels out a flaming pan of liquor coffee in order to stop anyone dying from a medieval curse…” All in an evening’s dining, if you’re on an island in the middle of Lake Como.

“Perched atop an office block, just down the road from London Bridge station, the Skyroom is the perfect spot for an urban roof garden. You feel like you’re one of the lucky few in on a secret as you look down over the rush-hour traffic…”