Nestled in the Scottish city of Inverness lies Leakey's Bookshop. Opened in 1979 in an old chapel, it has thousands of books. As you walk in, you're confronted by a giant black log-burner, perhaps risky in a place with so much paper but there to combat the harshest of Scottish winters. Lining the walls are... Continue Reading →
We only stayed in Trieste for three nights, but in that time we managed to cram in a bunch of stuff; a visit to Miramare Castle, a magnificent palace built for Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian who was executed in Mexico before it was fully completed, a trip into Grotte Gigante, the world's largest showcave, and an afternoon... Continue Reading →
It would be remiss to travel halfway round the world and not visit possibly the most famous place in New Zealand - the original Hobbiton movie set. Watch our trip to Hobbiton video Don't get me wrong, there are loads of stunning places in NZ - you can see a bunch of them in our... Continue Reading →
This might be the most beautiful library I've ever seen. Not that all libraries aren't inherently beautiful because they contain lots of lovely, lovely books - but this one is most definitely epic. This...is a library? The Grand Hall of the Austrian National library is unlike any library I've seen before and I've been to... Continue Reading →
After stumbling across the world's oldest library in Verona, we then discovered the world's oldest covered theatre not far away in Trento - clearly, there's a lot of old things in Italy. The Olympic Theatre (or Teatro Olimpico) was built between 1580-1585. It's still in use, and still has in place scenery from the first... Continue Reading →
It's been 13 days since we left the UK to start the first part of our world tour/mid-life crisis as detailed on my last post - and I still can't quite believe we did it. First stop, Munich We flew from Heathrow looking every bit like tourists, our belongings stuffed into two large suitcases and... Continue Reading →
I'm writing this post in a rental somewhere in deepest, darkest Wiltshire. I've sold my house and crammed most of my stuff into a storage container - including my books. My most precious ones aka all my Discworld and related works, are stashed in my parents loft in case of disaster. All of which leaves... Continue Reading →
Places to go (when we can go places) I'm digging out and sprucing up blog posts to bring fantastically inspiring places to all you writers out there. Stay safe. Just a few metres underneath the city of Barcelona lies an ancient Roman world. On entering the Museu d'Historia de Barcelona, you first see all the... Continue Reading →
We took the car ferry across the glossy Sognefjord to the Norwegian Glacier Museum. Inside, three huge cocooning screens showed a film that flew us over the glaciers that spread over the country. Afterwards, it was only fitting that we visited a real glacier - or at least part of it. The Boyabreen arm of... Continue Reading →
Wordland 