How the Normandy town of Cherbourg became home to an icon of French cinema
November 12, 2021Finally for autumn, a snapshot of my first overseas assignment in 18 months: Cherbourg. It’s a classic of French cinema. A film that evokes dewy-eyed nostalgia for a more innocent age and one that firmly put a historic port town in Normandy on the map. Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, the… Read more
How to spend a fun weekend in Blackpool for the illuminations
November 10, 2021I’m finally catching up on posting assignments over the autumn and the first stop? Blackpool. The nights may be drawing in, but autumn finds brassy Blackpool bathed in “artificial sunshine”. The world-renowned Blackpool Illuminations along the promenade (pictured above) have been extended this year until 3 January, building on a tradition… Read more
How to get a taste for autumn on a cider-tasting trip to Herefordshire
August 12, 2021James Marsden is keen to introduce me to Big Mama. She stands tall in the middle of a restored orchard, looking good for her 300 years, with her mother-tree branches heaving under the bounty of late-harvest perry pears. I’ve joined James to gather the harvest by hand in Gregg’s Pit… Read more
Wales has a new Unesco World Heritage Site. Let’s use it wisely then.
July 29, 2021Wales has a new Unesco World Heritage Site. The industrial heritage of North Wales has just been named as the UK’s 33rd Unesco World Heritage Site. The award reflects the international significance of Welsh slate in “roofing the 19th century world”. It’s the fourth site in Wales alongside the castles… Read more
How to spend a weekend in Manchester for the International Festival
July 9, 2021*Map via The i Paper The Manchester International Festival is now under way across the northern-powerhouse city. If you’re planning a visit, then you might just find my guide to what’s new and interesting around Manchester useful. Amongst the highlights is the exhibition Use Hearing Protection: the early years of Factory… Read more
Why Liverpool could survive loosing its Unesco World heritage status
July 2, 2021It looks like an own goal for Liverpool — not Klopp’s team facing the wrath of The Kop but the announcement by Unesco that it could strip Liverpool of its World Heritage status. The port city of Liverpool is currently one of 32 Unesco World Heritage sites in the UK.… Read more
How to drink to English Wine Week at the Carden Park Hotel in Cheshire
June 21, 2021Cheers! It’s English Wine Week. I went to raise a glass at my nearest vineyard, nestled in the Cheshire countryside at the Carden Park Hotel and Spa estate [pictured above], for a national newspaper feature. * The edited article was published yesterday in the Sun on Sunday. This is my… Read more
20 good reasons to spend your next UK staycation in Chester & Cheshire
June 15, 2021UK staycation? Of course you are. So it’s timely that I had a two-pager in the Daily Telegraph at the weekend as part of the Staycation Nation series. It was packed with my local-knowledge tips about summer events and activities around my home patch of Chester and Cheshire. From Storyhouse’s… Read more
Why the Wirral village of Port Sunlight is built on a bar of soap
May 21, 2021He was the Jeff Bezos of his day, a polymath who founded a business empire — built on soap. Lord William Hesketh Lever [pictured above] built up the Lever Brothers business that made its home on the Wirral, founding the garden village of Port Sunlight in 1888. I visited the… Read more