Biography
Going Postal, Part Three
Just before 2000, I decided to give up a well-paid job and comfortable life in Japan to make a new start in my homeland. I had bought a share in a house in south London, [more…]
Joe Slater
Biography
Going Postal, Part Two
Just before 2000, I decided to give up a well-paid job and comfortable life in Japan to make a new start in my homeland. I had bought a share in a house in south London, [more…]
Biography
Going Postal, Part One
Just before 2000, I decided to give up a well-paid job and comfortable life in Japan to make a new start — please don’t laugh — in my homeland. England. Get back to my roots. [more…]
Literature
The Station at Aston Rowant
Based on a lyrical passage in The Oxford, Gloucester and Milford Haven Road, by Charles G Harper. Harper’s entire oeuvre of “Road” books has long been out of print, but no travel writer I know [more…]
Literature
Riding the donkou through Japan
When you read about Japanese trains, the first thing that comes to mind is probably the shinkansen, the world’s first bullet train and still a wonder to behold and to ride in. Or you [more…]
20th Century
Memories of the first World Cup held in Asia: Final rounds
The Japan-Korea World Cup in 2002 was the first time the competition had been co-hosted. It was the first time it had been held in Asia, and the first time a country that had never [more…]
20th Century
Memories of the first World Cup held in Asia: Early rounds
The Japan-Korea World Cup in 2002 was the first time the competition had been co-hosted. It was the first time it had been held in Asia, and the first time a country that had never [more…]
Arts
The Ugly Duckling County
When you think of the north of England, you think of fells and moors and hill farmers, of ruined abbeys and windswept Wolds, of gaunt mill chimneys, of terracing lurching crazily up bare hillsides, of [more…]
History
Mires, moats and manors
How could any true traveller ignore the lure of a name like Thorne Waste? It could be the title of a Brontë novel, or the kind of place the Hound of the Baskervilles was locked [more…]