Category: Journalism

Travel Writing: Having New Eyes

Travel Writing: Having New Eyes

Workshop 23rd May “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land,” wrote the Victorian novelist and essayist GK Chesterton. “It is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” What did he mean? When most of us are asked why we travel (leaving aside better…

The Love of Stuff

The problem with our society is not that it values material things too much but that it doesn’t value them enough FROM AEON MAGAZINE On my desk stands a miniature of an Easter Island moai, carved for me by a Rapa Nui craftsman. It’s precious to me, hewn from the same stone his ancestors used for…

Sorcerers’ Tales

RENATO Cardenas lives alone in a bleached wooden house, shielded by pine trees and the kind of mysterious smile you might expect from a wizard. Not that he will admit to being a wizard. “I’ve heard that people call me El Brujo Cardenas,” is all he will concede, tantalisingly, as he ushers us inside, amusement twitching…

Exploring Dangerous Truths

Great to see John Rae finally getting the recognition he deserves on his 200th birthday.  Never heard of him?  Me neither, until I came across the story of Britain’s most undervalued Arctic explorer a few years ago in Orkney. Born in Stromness, Dr Rae’s accomplishments tower above those of many of his more famous Victorian…

A Quiet Hero

You’ve probably never heard of Sir John Crofton, but if you value your lungs, you should certainly toast him. It was Crofton, half a century ago, who discovered the first 100 per cent cure for the age-old scourge of tuberculosis. Crofton, too, who pioneered the global method currently being used to fight terrifying new drug-resistant…

TEDx Talk: On Meaningful Risk

TEDx conference, Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest, Romania  November 2012 “My name is Nick Thorpe, I’m a writer and journalist, and I have a fascination with risk-taking. Despite my innate anxiety – or perhaps because of it – I seem compelled to stretch myself, force myself into the present moment. But what’s changed over the…

The Rites of Men

Psychotherapist Michael Boyle is in Edinburgh tomorrow (11th August) to talk about his visionary approach to directionless or delinquent young men – lead them through a modern rites of passage they will never forget.  Published in The Herald on 10th Aug 2012 AMID the depressingly high statistics for male youth offending, unemployment and suicide, Michael Boyle…

Scroll to Top