When the American tourist industry began to worry that travellers were avoiding the States, its response was to commission a saccharine film of smiling residents to be shown at airports and ports –- made with the help of Disney.
  Now that the authorities in New York are planning to redevelop Governors Island -– which was […]

Seth Stevenson, writing in today’s New York Times, wants us to think twice about using wheeled luggage. He’s fed up with people running over his feet or asking for help to lift an overstuffed case into the overhead lockers on aircraft.
  I’ve pretty sure I’ve never done either. Though I’m a great believer in carrying […]

Don’t judge a book by the cover of the DVD of the film made of one of the author’s earlier efforts. I nearly made that mistake when Weidenfeld and Nicolson sent me a copy of The Wind from the East by Almudena Grandes (originally published as Los aires difíciles). All I knew of Grandes, I’m […]

Surely one of the first lessons an airline pilot learns is never to leave the passengers in any doubt about their safety. The pilot of the GB Airways flight I caught yesterday from Tenerife to London had clearly forgotten it. The flight had been due to leave at 1950 and was taxiing when we were […]