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Mourning Palmyra
ByadminThe destruction of our ancient history, of magnificent sites that are, or were, jewels in our cultural heritage and are now nothing but rubble, makes my blood boil. We are all of us reading the news and staring at photographs that are breaking our hearts. And we are so impotent, or so it feels to…
The Song of the Whale and my Visit to Biarritz
ByadminMany years ago, in a period of my life that is almost history now, while I was filming the TV series All Creatures Great and Small, I was invited to take part in a Save the Whale rally which was to be held in Trafalgar Square. It was a Sunday. A high stage had been…
A potted history of French Algeria
ByadminLast month I wrote a little about the events surrounding the Charlie Hebdo massacres in Paris along with my reflections, observations while travelling in Algeria seven years ago. I am continuing along a similar theme today: Algeria and a broad brushstroke of the events that led to the Algerian War of Independence. The French colonial…
Introducing Gloster House, County Offaly, Ireland
I love properties and the excitement of property renovations, as those of you who have read my Olive Farm series of books will know, but rarely have I suffered from House Restoration Envy or indeed House Envy, pure and simple, until I was travelling through the midlands of the Emerald Isle where as Fate would…
West Cork Literary Festival
ByadminI am in Bantry, West Cork, attending the West Cork Literary Festival where this afternoon I am In Conversation with the Irish writer, Alice Taylor, talking about gardens and the healing powers of the earth, and throughout the week I am teaching a workshop on Memoir writing. I was here for the same workshop last…
An afternoon of Mediterranean Discoveries at the Arab World Institute in Paris
Recently, I had lunch under a thunder-grey sky in Paris. It was a Sunday and the cafés and bars were spilling onto the streets with Parisians enjoying the pleasures of their weekend. I had just flown up from the warm south. Michel, my husband, collected me from the airport before he disappeared for an afternoon…

