Travels with My Hat is a memoir of my adventures as a travel writer in Africa, South Asia and the Arab world. Beautifully designed, it is lavishly illustrated with photographs and maps and includes poignant correspondence with my mother who had never left Australia.
When I would think, well this is what I've come for and the physical and psychological demands of the effort to get here, are now worth it...
When I first set foot in Morocco as a young backpacker in the 1960s, I was captivated by the ever changing desert and mountain scenery, its colourful peoples and fascinating souqs. My book Collins Independent Travellers Guide to Morocco was published in 1990.
Some 1.3 billion people in the world lack access to clean water. Women and children spend an estimated 200 million hours a day hauling water, often over great distances from the source. Here Somali refugees in the Horn of Africa, one of the driest places on earth.
Thousands of images covering travel, culture and religions can be found in Christine Osborne Pictures and the World Religions Photo Library
The remains of Hatra, the ancient capital of Arab kings, lie west of Mosul, 300 kms north of Baghdad, on the windswept steppes of the Ninawa governorate in northern Iraq. Originally an important caravanserai on the fabled Silk Road … Continue reading
Excerpt from Chapter 4: Middle East Nightmare …The next day, I took a taxi to the Iraq National Museum founded by Gertrude Bell, the great Orientalist, political officer and archaeologist who spoke both Arabic and Persian. Here under a single … Continue reading
What’s to be done about British deployment in Afghanistan, following mistaken assumptions of al-Qaeda links to Iraq, post 9/11? I visited Iraq twice under the regime of Saddam Hussein and while there is no question he was Evil, Iraq was … Continue reading
