Travel: Malta – May 2012

What an amazing place.  I’ve been trying to get to Malta for years – since around 2003 – but for one reason or another it never worked out.  Now that I’ve been I’ll definitely be going back. A tiny island 18 miles long by 9 miles wide with 7,000 years of human history crammed down [...]

Travel: riding the Orient Express – a day trip from London on British Pullman

April 2012 – Orient Express from London . . 2012 – Orient Express Ticket Pouch April. A week earlier a package arrived in the post. Tickets for the Orient Express. Inside the package was a leather pouch. All very Agatha. Fantastic. . 2012 – Orient Express Ticket Pouch April. There was something very pleasing (and [...]

November 2011 – Memorial Weekend – Hayling Island return

November 11th. Remembrance Day. But also the day my mum died – two years ago now. Strange when I consider that. The elastic nature of time. Oj and I both took the day off work. I spent most of it up in the Sky Bunker, working on Yellow Dawn (RPG) – version 2.5. Come early [...]

Hayling Island – November 2011 – a Yellow Dawn weekend

You can read a blog post about this fab weekend trip to Hayling Island, with my Yellow Dawn player group. The majority of the following photos were taken by my good friend (and game breaker) Hagen . Hagenland Photography Weddings – Events – Portrait – Fashion – Art web: www.hagenland.com email: info@hagenland.com All rights reserved [...]

Tracking down scenes from the world of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Devon and Cornwall

Tracking down scenes from the world of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. So it was my birthday and I’d been stroking my chin to come up with something I’d like to do.  Jo, my partner and editor, had just bought herself a cream coloured convertible VW-Beetle, so the idea of a road-trip was [...]

Travel: Switzerland – video from Dorint hotel balcony in Beatenberg

This video I wanted to share  from a trip I did through Switzerland, the Alps and into Italy and Lake Como. This is the view from the balcony of my hotel room (hotel Dorint), in Beatenberg, overlooking the town of Interlaken with views of Jungfrau, Schilthorn and others.  Incredible views.  Excellent hotel. You can see photos [...]

Travel journal: Santiago – June 2011

  Santiago – Monastery of San Martin Pinario This place was built in 1494 – founded by a group of Italian benedictine monks so they could watch over the mortal remains of the apostle James. It is one of the most important baroque buildings in Spain – and, amazingly, it was my hotel for the [...]

Travel journal: Switzerland and Italy – May 2011

  Switzerland – Travelling from Basel towards Lucerne May 7th 2011. The journey begins and I’m totally excited. Yet another silly o’clock taxi ride through deserted early morning Bristol streets. This time to the train station, Temple Meads. Train to London. Tube to St Pancreas. Eurostar to Paris. Change to different station and then the [...]

Travel journal: New York & Catskills – April 2011

-April 15th 2011. The journey begins – and I’m riddled with aprehension. The recent prang in my car – with its brain jarring impact, has left me feeling depleted and lacking in confidence. Strange. Part of me is terrified about going to New York on my own – the first time since 1999 – but [...]

Travel journal: New York – December 2010

UK – journey begins December 2010. So I’m off to New York, again. This is somewhere I’ve been going to since 1998… back then a trip that certainly defined a new iteration and re-invention of myself. Something I do every now and then. I’m beyond the whole tourist vibe. I’m not going there to site [...]

Video: Cornwall – Tredethy Country House – Padstow harbour – Tintagel Castle – July 2009

July 2009 CORNWALL, ENGLAND: This is a short video giving you a snapshot view of Tredethy Country House, where I spent a week, writing and working on Yellow Dawn; plus a glimpse of Padstow harbour and then Tintagel Castle. Around 4pm I arrived at the hotel. It was just beyond a small village ominously enough [...]

Video: a little glimpse of Jesmond Dene, England

Jesus Mound A short video I shot to send to some friends to show them where I grew up. Jesmond, or Jesus Mound,  is a pretty special place but even more so is the compact, wooded Ouse valley tucked away within it: both mystical and enchanting during the day and unnervingly eerie at night. It’s [...]

Travel: Cyprus – remote mountain villa to retreat and write a novel – isolation, goats and bells

May 2008 It was very last minute, literally two days before we flew, my girlfriend and I booked tickets to Cyprus after securing a private villa. It was heaven. We arrived late at night, hired a car and drove from Paphos through darkness along the Southern shore of the island before taking our exit off [...]

Video: bizarre weather in England – snow for Easter in Newcastle Upon Tyne

April 2008 I was up in Newcastle (England) visiting my old stomping ground.  I love Newcastle and the North East in Spring.  The landscape, often remote and exposed seems well suited to the crisp clean air of a new year forming.  April in the UK is often bright and breezy with regular brief showers. Getting [...]

Video: Cat versus Mouse – a David and Goliath story…

March 2008 . . I’m up in Newcastle and one of my sister’s cats has found a mouse. Sid, the cat, seems irritated that I’m there filming, spoiling his fun. I think the mouse is kind of hoping that with me there the cats will just go away. Well, this is how it ended up [...]

Video: Paris – Eiffel Tower – Glass Pyramid at Louvre – Montmarte and steps up to Sacre Cleu

April 2007 A very quick montage of video clips from my trip to Paris in April 2007, includes Eiffel Tower – Glass Pyramid at Louvre – Montmarte and steps up to Sacre Cleu. You get a view of Eiffel tower from below, then going up the lift, a view from upper deck; then skip to [...]

Video: Tynemouth pier and friends on a stunning December afternoon – 2006

December 2006 I’d gone up to Newcastle Upon Tyne (North East England) to visit my homeland with friends – one of whom had never been up North before. She’s so happy being there as you can tell in the video!  There’s a lot about the North East I love but this place, Tynemouth Pier, is [...]

Video: Thunder and Lightning booms and flashes above Le Lac des Rêves, South of France

September 2006 My girlfriend used to own a place here. A lakeside holiday camp,  Le Lac des Rêves consists of several hundred static caravans: a massive trailer park with great atmosphere and only a short drive to sun-kissed beaches, and less than an hour from one of my favourite places on Earth, the medieval Crusader [...]

Video ¦ outside walls of Aigues-Mortes a vast Crusader fort holding a living town: South of France 2006

September 2006 One of my favourite places on Earth and a major setting for scenes in two of my works of fiction: the post-apocalyptic novel, Dog Eat Dog; and in Shadows of the Quantinex, the globe-spanning campaign for the role-playing game Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur. My girlfriend used to own a place [...]

Travel: Cornwall, St Michaels Mount – wading a flooded causeway and lightning in St Ives – July 2006

Cornwall – July 2006 This was my first time visiting Cornwall, and all I can say is “wow!” Plunging South and West in the car a remix of Jimmy Sommerville / Communards track came on the radio and became a theme tune of this trip. 20 years since I last listened to it on the [...]