“At approximately 11am, a white silence steals our breath away as we step almost seamlessly from the plane door on to a train that would carry our winter-coated crocodile through a snow-clad Switzerland…”

“We only play to a minimum of 80,000 people,” says the Turkish rock star with an ironic glint in his eye as he builds a pyramid out of macadamia nuts on the table that sits between us…

Italians do it better. I could have told you that myself, yet last time Pret a Diner was in town this was announced to the capital somewhat differently. In a bubble of quirky design and ostentatious charm, the magnificent surroundings of a one-time James Bond-esque casino on St James’s was [...]

For most of last year, and some of this, I made frequent visits to Manchester. These journeys ‘oop north’ were a chance to think and reflect (I always maintain that I do my best thinking on trains) and consider trips to destinations further afield. In fact, the reasons that took [...]

“The sky was flecked with white lights that twinkled from Como’s western shore, and the bolt of electricity that the clouds would imminently bring provided a certain drama to our recent arrival.”

“There’s an overall palpable sense of history and mystique here, something that doesn’t come as too much of a surprise when you realise that Madeira was a preferred holiday spot to characters such as Winston Churchill.”

“Seated a deux along the pretty paved harbourside of the terracotta-coloured UNESCO world heritage city of Porto, an inky Ramos Pinto Duas Quintas 2009 from the Duoro valley glugged into my wine glass.”