Month: December 2012

And the winner is? The Golden Pen Award 2012

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I won a travel-writing award this year: the Croatian Tourist Board Golden Pen award for the best travel article 2012.

The story, 1,244 Dalmatians, first appeared in Wanderlust magazine, who reported on my award in their news section.

The piece documents a trip around the islands in the Dalmatian archipelago, including Brac, where I stayed with Lidija and Josko Ivanovic (pictured above) at Pension Lidija.

Here’s an extract:

That night I checked into a simple but homely guesthouse, a short stroll from the sunset-bathed harbour in the town of Sutivan. Owners Lidija and Josko Ivanovic greeted me with smiles, passing out dried figs and a bottle of homemade brandy through the beaded kitchen curtain.

As we sat on the terrace, surrounded by potted-plant geraniums and shrouded by a canopy of vines overhead, the evening sun bounced off the white-painted pizza oven and the church of the Ascension of Mary chimed a greeting. We had just met but I already regarded Lidija and Josko as a favourite aunt and uncle and I slept soundly that night like a little boy visiting long-lost relatives.

You can also read the full story.

Was this story a worthy winner? Did I capture the essence of Croatia in this piece?

Post your comments below.

Enterprise feature for Leeds alumni magazine

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I was commissioned recently to write a feature for Leeds, the alumni magazine of my former alma mater.

It’s great to keep in touch with the alumni community from Leeds University and good to work on some features outside of travel every now and then.

Here’s an extract:

Viv Parry has gone from Leeds to Manhattan in the space of a year. The Managing Director of the Leeds-based company Exquisite Handmade Cakes, which supplies bakery products to cafes, schools and hotels, was one of the local businesspeople helped by an innovative project from the Leeds University Business School.

She wanted to grow her small enterprise and give something back to the local economy. She ended up on a flight to New York City.

“When I set up the business in 2004, my ambition was to make a profit. My ambition today is to have an international brand,” she says.

Read the full story.

More about Leeds alumni.

Do you have any great ideas with a Leeds angle, or story alumni of the university would love to read?

Post your thoughts below.

Volunteering on Flat Holm Island, Cardiff Bay

Volunteering on Flat Holm Island
Coast magazine is to run my story about volunteering on islands around Britain this month. The first-person narrative is based on my stay on Flat Holm Island, off Cardiff Bay, in June this year.
Slow worm surveys, fence making and animal husbandry were amongst the activities I got stuck into as a conservation volunteer over the weekend. The image above shows fellow volunteer Jamie McEwan with wonky the friendly ram.
Here’s an extract:
Flat Holm Island (Ynys Echni in Welsh) is a great place to get started. The 56-acre island in the British Channel is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and has been managed by the Flat Holm Project since 1982. The island recently introduced short volunteer breaks, including new winter breaks over Christmas and New Year, and even opened a small pub last summer for a post-work sundowner.
Have you been to Flat Holm? Or volunteered on a nature project?
Post your comments below.