Light on boat at Batson slipway devon

The magic of Devonshire light

When the sky turns lilac, I know my day is nearly done. The trees fade into the horizon and make way for the nighttime sky. I’ll miss the stars when we move to the city. Four months worth of days have passed at this window from Autumn into Winter sun. People say England is grey. … Read more

Landwehr Canal, Berlin

Berlin, it’s time.

A few months ago I met Lionel Shriver. She believes that enjoyment lies in anticipation, and experience is always a disappointment in comparison to what we imagined. When she said this she was talking about food. The pizzas we lust after and the foreign food we long to return to. I took objection to her stance. … Read more

Barcelona with a baby- Hotel Barcelona Catedral

The vöner

In Berlin we achieved something extraordinary. It centers around a kebab. Döners are a staple of British life, normally ingested around 1am with a side order of cheesy chips, and an after-effect of sickness. Whether the nausea comes from the meat itself or its concoction with copious alcohol is hard to define, but the term … Read more

Snowy helsinki

17 reasons to love Helsinki

Sometimes places inspire a picture painted with words. Helsinki in its winter dress did plenty to provoke poetry, but now is time for some more practical prose. Our reasons to love Helsinki First, this image of how it made us feel: An unlikely Tango The Finns love to Tango, so much so that they have … Read more

Steve and Victoria at SXSW

A big year for Steve

Planetary Collective

Tomorrow is Steve’s birthday. 

Because I write this blog, a lot of what is covered centres on my story. But while I write and subject myself to guinea pig trials, Steve is consistently working away on his film business. It’s impressive in itself that he’s been able to do this on the road, but even more so when you look at what he and the other members of Planetary Collective have managed to achieve. It blows my mind.

So, in honour of the man who I think is the best of this universe’s people, I’d like to shout a little about some of what he’s achieved this past year gone by. 

Read more

Helsinki from above

A Portrait of Helsinki in Winter

Steve’s beard is made of ice and the snow is dancing to the shape of the wind. We smile, enchanted by the magic of winter. We’re arrived to the first snowfall of the season, the Finns delighting in relief from the darkness. It was a black Christmas in Helsinki, a rare and unwelcome occurrence. Winter … Read more

Is this the best school in the world? Green School Bali

One of the reasons we were drawn to Bali was a school. We’re not planning on having kids anytime soon nor do we even know if that’s a path we’ll go down, but we realised when we were in San Pancho that when it comes to choosing a place to live, good education options might … Read more

Paris desserts

A surprise weekend in Paris

Eleven years ago, I saw a boy dressed in a red hat, a red hoodie and a pair of baggy blue jeans. Looking at him that day, intuition and a skip of the heart told me that there was a story to be written between us. It took some time to get going – we were … Read more

Victoria Watts eating cake

Time to say f*ck it

I’m writing this with some homemade cookies and a coffee complete with milk. Dairy, wheat, caffeine, sugar, it’s all there and it’s glorious. I’ve been in rebellion mode for a month now. Two months of austerity in Ubud came to a crashing close at the Writers and Readers Festival where the arrival of the literary elite pushed away my … Read more