I adore the month of May. Nature untrammelled. Spring finally appeared in mid-April with the year’s first few days of warm weather. Suddenly at dawn there rose up a great cathartic symphony of eager tweeters, and best of all the lusty-throated blackbirds, whose lonely melodies make your heart melt. The gigantic horse chestnut tree at… Read more

Boarding the Eurostar for Brussels, I had a chance encounter with a sort-of-journalist acquaintance of mine who is a mine for pithy quotations on EU affairs. He was had a bedraggled Christmas-party season air about him. We reconvened in the buffet… Read more

There are times in life when I am caught in a Hamlet-like vortex, confronted by something at once ridiculous and contemptible, but my will failing me, at the crucial moment, when I have the target of my ire in my sights. Instead, a day or two late… Read more

Advert for fast food at Hector Chicken proudly announces the price of ‘poulet rôti’, ‘Croustys’, ‘Wings’, ‘Tenders’, ‘Nuggets’, ‘Chickenburger’, ‘Pita chicken’, ‘Col au vent’. Read more

The air was moist over the Kentish coast, steady drizzle, warm and overcast. I set off at 7.45 with only 75 miles to Croydon today, though my wayward navigation would make it a bit longer. The road to Folkestone climbs steeply through a green gap … Read more

5.45am Do zobaczenia żono! My steel horse champing at the cleat in crepuscular Brussels, I headed west and crossed the Brussels-Scheldt canal. At 20 miles, the River Dender at Ninove was draped in mist. Eleven miles of soggy low visibility later, … Read more

Dear friends, On Thursday 26th July, I will mount the saddle and cycle 222 miles from my home in Brussels to my old homes of Croydon and Hackney. My reward will be a pint of Young’s Special in the Dog and Bull on Surrey Street, in Old Town Croydon… Read more