[Note: This is the very first travel writing I ever did in the mid 1990s and as such, it needed a little mopping up. The images can’t be clicked to be enlarged, as they had been scanned poorly. Apologies.] My first trip to Chile and Argentina lasted five weeks and was during one February and […]
Greece: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Fix Hellas I know that “Fix Hellas” sounds like a cry of despair, but anyone who’s travelled to Greece before the early 1980s surely remembers ordering and drinking Fix Hellas, the only beer produced in Greece with a national distribution network. The country’s Soviet-style industry control system, import controls and a small domestic market ensured […]
Pilgrimage to Bruce Chatwin’s grave
When I found myself on a commission to Kardamyli, in the upper Mani peninsula in Greece, I had to do one thing: visit Bruce Chatwin’s grave. Well, not exactly grave. Bruce Chatwin almost became an Orthodox Christian on his deathbed, but still he was cremated according to Anglican custom. The Greek Orthodox church does not […]