This morning at the hotel I sat in my preferred breakfast seat in front of the servery. The two tables there are outside the dining room proper. It's fun watching the chefs and kitchen hands assembling the dishes, pushing completed plates to the front edge of the bench...

​'When you buy or commission the work of a craftsman you buy more than just an item or service. You buy hundreds of hours of experimentation. You buy days, weeks and months of frustration and also moments of pure joy. You’re not buying an object, you’re buying someone’...

I loved seeing the very sophisticated Petersham Nurseries shop at Covent Garden - I tried to walk in before it even opened! But I was just as eager to see the one in Richmond yesterday. It's casually rustic with a dinky-di nursery and a glass house restaurant. 

I’v...

That's the gist of what Samuel Johnson said way back in 1777. I couldn't agree more! So when I woke on Saturday to grey skies and drizzle, I grabbed my brolly and swept up Park Lane as if I owned it.

As soon as I saw the Dorchester I knew I had to call in.  Many years a...

Picture a chef standing in front of you shucking ice-cold Mersea Island oysters as fast as you can eat them. That was Thursday night, although if I have to be strictly truthful, I wasn't the only patron. Youngs Brewery owns this pub The Coach and Horses, and the compan...

I've been looking forward to searching the archives at Kew for so long I could hardly believe that the day had finally arrived. I was so nervous that I took a wrong turn twice and was only saved by directions from friendly natives.

​It's only a 10-15 minute stroll from...

The weather in Cork was just brilliant the whole time I was there but today it dawned drizzly, windy and foggy!

It wasn't a pea souper though - before takeoff I could see trees in the distance.

I was hoping for a nice foggy shot from the window on takeoff. This is it.

It'...

If you've been following my research travels, you'll know there's been magic happening.

When I told a man sitting next to me on a plane that I needed sailing knowledge of the Mediterranean, he turned out to be a ship's captain who knows that sea like the back of his han...

'I think Europcar is the best rental car company in the world,' I said seriously.

'That wasn't always the case,' said my helper at Cork Airport.

'Really?' I asked.

'No, it wasn't', he said, 'not until they hired me.'

That made me laugh.

'Please make sure that there is n...

Get ready. This post's a marathon.

I told you about my mate Tom on the aeroplane. The next Corkonian I met was the taxi-driver - I asked him if he'd always been a taxi driver.

Well, he began, When I was a boy, me father was after buying a pub.....  which turned into a s...