Standing in the entrance of the Halcyon Gallery, Bruton Street, London, an older gentleman (who frankly should know better) walks in with a beautiful younger woman. She immediately makes a bee line for a piece entitled ‘Sex in the City’, an alluring display of brightly jewelled high-heeled shoes, picks one up and is in the process…
For Giles and I, our interest in all things mechanical began as young children. Our weekends and evenings were spent with our father in his workshop, tinkering with balsa wood, cogs and wheels and any other spare materials we could find lying around. Our father was an incredible engineer. To this day we still fly…
Scything through the summer sky at 5 miles a minute, I was profoundly impressed at not only how civilised the TBM is, but perhaps even more importantly, how easy it is to fly. “Although with its wood-and-leather interior, Club-Class seating and air conditioning pack, the -700 may not appear to be a pioneering aeroplane, in…
Purchasers who aspire to live in a fresh, new, modern environment but don’t have time or expertise to do the work themselves, feel that in paying a premium for a refurbished property they’ll get the finished article they desire. When everything goes smoothly it seems a fair trade: cash, in exchange for goods and services.…
Guide books are always banging on about what good fun it is to get “lost” amongst winding streets of medieval cities – but I can tell you from hard experience that it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. At least, it isn’t a good idea to go the wrong way under the glare of…
I suppose it is a legitimate concern. Only 200 of the 1,192 Maldivian islands are inhabited. Simultaneously, it’s one of the world’s most dispersed countries and the smallest country in Asia, in terms of population and landmass. To add a bit of a brain twister to the equation, the Maldives has the Earth’s lowest highest…
What is it with shoes? Carrie fantasises over them in SATC. Men spending around 800 to buy a pair at Berlutti in London’s Conduit Street automatically join a club whose members meet up in Paris salons at night to spray Champagne onto their purchases before vigorously polishing them off. And for me, one of my…
The historic seat of the Earl of St Germans gets all creative for the weekend as Cornwall’s annual literary fest returns. Now in its ninth year, the Port Elliot Festival has continued to grow in stature, not least due to its idyllic location in the grounds of the Grade One listed stately home, and now…
On first appearances, Antalya seems an unlikely place to build a $1.4 billion hotel. As you leave the airport, you’re confronted with sparse, typically Mediterranean countryside dotted with holiday homes, chain hotels and slightly down-at-heel shopping malls. Drive for 15 minutes though, and the scenery starts to change. The hotels become ever grander including some…
I am a dedicated monohull man. For the past thirty years I have progressed from being a delivery skipper (in my pre-resume days) to chartering a broad variety of bare boats all over the world. In the last few years I have undertaken to grow my own crew (my kids) by chartering cruising boats so…