Current projects
Travel Writing Courses: I tutor week-end residential writing courses in the UK and 4 and 7-day writing courses in the heart of Los Pueblos Blancos (the White Villages in the mountains of Spain's Grazalema National Park) for Malaga Workshops. These run in tandem with a photography course and a course in novel writing. Further information about the courses can be had from Malaga Workshops at www.malagaworkshops.co.uk or email me. Next UK Course is in March 2010.
Having returned from Cyprus, Salamanca and Toledo with full notebooks, I am now writing some more articles on my experiences there, having delivered the commissions for which I first travelled to Spain and Cyprus.
I’ve also been spending time in the UK during the early summer and have visited the New Forest (Beaulieu Palace, National Motor Museum, luxury hotels etc.), Brighton, Deal, Dover and Eastbourne.
My plans are flexible but the following events are on my late summer and early autumn list:-
1. Reviewing some upmarket hotels for the Luxury Travel market. These reviews will see me back in Spain (Estepona), Belgium (Bruges), Sweden, to do the canal trip between its two major cities, Gothenburg and Stockholm and to spend time in both of them, Belfast in N. Ireland and Co. Mayo in Southern Ireland where I shall be checking out the new spa facilities at Ashford Castle.
2. In August I shall be doing some luxury canal cruising in France, visiting villages and wineries along the way. A leisurely cruise giving me time to photograph what promises to be delightful scenery and towns, not to mention cellars full of wines.
3. Isle of Wight Festivals: Folk and Blues Festival, Walking Festival, Cycling Festival, Cowes Week, and Bestival. With regard to Cowes Week, I have access to all facilities there during the Regatta as I am an accredited journalist at the event, so instant feedback is possible anywhere in the world if needed.
4. A trip to Gallipolli to visit the war graves probably for Anzac Day and a trip to Mykonos in Greece is scheduled for late September.
5. A trip to the Kingdom of Navarre and the unspoilt coasts of Galicia.
After that it’s Thailand again in January to attend some Buddhist ceremonies and do some trekking in the mountains of the north and snorkelling off the islands in the south – especially Phuket and Koh Samuii.
However full the calendar, calls from editors are always welcome and if the articles already written appeal to you, or the places to which I regularly travel interest you, then please contact me. I promise to return the call immediately if I'm at home or a.s.a.p. if I'm travelling.