Sagittarius edged from her mooring in the middle of Eyemouth Harbour. The time was 6.58am and the rain hammered down. Anglers on board the 15-capacity catamaran chatted about the prospects of catching while skipper Ronnie Marshall edged the vessel into the tideway. The swell was OK and the wind moderate but oh that rain. We were drenched as we tack...

The region of Emilia Romagna epitomises Italian culinary delights in homely environments where hospitality is the epicentre of the local culture. Indeed, its rich agricultural industry is reflected in the verdant landscape. The mouth watering food items such as parmigiano reggiano (parmesan cheese), pasta, prosciutto ham and balsamic vinegar that h...

Hansel and Gretel is the second English National Opera production to be locked into the Open Air's theatre season at Regent's Park. Following the acclaimed operatic production of Henry James's horror novella The Turn of the Screw in 2018, this is Engelbert Humperdinck's 19th century operatic reworking of the Grimmm Brothers' fairytale. As someone n...

The Cotswolds covers an almost 800 square miles that takes in the five English counties of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire. A designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, it offers quintessential English country towns and villages of honey-coloured Cotswold stone The Cotswolds also has more than 3,000 mile...

The Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin is a theatre and an ensemble that stages spectacular Las Vegas style productions on a two-year cycle. Commemorating its centenary in 2019, the shows combine extravagant costumes, state-of-the-art stage settings with grand musical and dance numbers interspersed with 'heart-stopping' feats. The current production i...

9/11, two numbers that conjure huge emotional resonance. The al-Qaeda terrorist attacks of Tuesday September 11 2001 - on the World Trade Centre in New York and Pentagon in Virginia - was witnessed by many, many millions who were glued to TVs around the globe. The overwhelming, barbaric, futility of 9/11 tends to be the abiding memory for those who...