Having to correct several non-English speakers (and quite a few Americans) as regards the pronunciation of Leicester Square (LES-ter), Gloucester Road (GLOS-ter) or Greenwich (GREN-ich) in London, I thought I’d get this post off my chest. Queen of mispronounced locations is Davos in Switzerland that suffers from looking like a Greek resort such as Kavos. […]
The Brazilian flag
The Brazilian flag has featured a lot in London recently, what with the Olympics, the Paralympics and the choice of Rio as the seat of the Football (or Soccer) World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. So much of the international bunting I’ve seen has got it wrong and many have asked me […]
Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden
To celebrate Rio’s new 2012 Unesco site , I am republishing this condensed passage from my book Brazil: Life, Blood, Soul. When Portuguese King João VI instituted the Botanical Garden in Rio in 1808, there were many fortunes to be made from the discovery and breeding of exotic plants. There are over 8,000 kinds of […]