Selected articles
Through a glass darkly – North Africa as seen through English travel-writing
It is not enough for a traveller in North Africa, to sit in the shaded Cafe de Paris, be it in Tunis, Tangier, Algiers or Marrakech and just sip a coffee beside the street theatre of a Maghrebi dusk. You should, in the pecking order of these things, have both an open packet of local cigarettes and a battered travel book at your elbow.
Moroccan History
It was the proud boast of his reign that the roads were safe enough for a woman or a Jew to travel across the breadth of the country without being troubled. This unaccustomed order was only achieved by an authoritarian regime backed by a standing army of 150, 000 Negro slaves.
Erg Chebbi: the Sand Dunes of south-eastern Morocco
The sun lit the sands up with a fast changing palet of pinks, mauves and purples. The exceptional clarity of that morning light also revealed to us the snow-covered peaks of the High Atlas mountains. It was even more astonishing than the night sky.
Multi-faith Muslim Morocco
Death is greeted with frenzied ululations from female relatives and friends though men are traditionally supposed to hold back from passionate expressions of grief.
Roman Morocco
Every tour of Roman Morocco should start at Tangier, the three thousand year old trading city that commands the one generous bay on the southern shore of the Straits of Gibraltar.
Exhibition review: Paris Pays Tribute to Tangier, Treasures of the Kingdom of Morocco at Petit Palais, 1999
It is as if the Saracens have at last advanced north from their 732 defeat at Poitiers-Tours and stamped their first architectural mark on Paris.
Stubbs and the Moroccan Lion
It is all the more disturbing, therefore, that George Stubbs of all people should have become obsessed by the image of a lion attacking a horse.
The Spice of Life: the scents and traditional medicines of Marrakech
It takes a lifetime to enter this world of charms and cures.
Beat Surrender - Fez festival of sacred music
Fez is, however, undeniably difficult to get to know. It has none of that African space, easy charm and languor of Marrakech. It is by contrast a place of narrow alleys, high walls and dark shadows
Fez at the time of the Sacred Music Festival
A defiant and hauntingly long guttural wail of emotional rapture - an Arabic hymn to God’s love - held the crowd as spell bound as her sisters had.
Charge of the White Brigade - Tissa Horse Festival in northern Morocco
I first came to the Tissa festival by mistake, escaping from a series of misadventures in the Riff mountains.
The Cut Throat Princes of Marrakech
People fall for Marrakech for a myriad of reasons. The hidden palaces, the street musicians, shopping in the great covered souk, the dry heat that extends well into the winter months and the palpable sense of bustling glamour.
Morocco: The past is a long dream
With each new revelation of complexity, my love affair with the ruins has deepened.
The Sallee Rovers and the Pirate Republic of the Bou Regreg
The Sallee Rovers did not just restrict their operations to the capture of shipping but took the war into the lands of the enemy; landing raiding parties that returned with captives.
Afterword for “Let It Come Down” by Paul Bowles
It is after the sunset call to prayer that the place begins to glow with a mounting pitch of animation
On the trail of Sultan Moulay Ismail
It was shopping that first inclined me towards an interest in Islam, though it must be said that the lupine line of hassling touts that in the old days awaited the visitor immediately outside the old Tangier dock gates did their best to keep the secret well-springs of their faith well hidden.
Introduction for “The Last Storytellers: Tales from the Heart of Morocco” by Richard Hamilton
It is after the sunset call to prayer that the place begins to glow with a mounting pitch of animation
Souk shopping in Tangier
It was shopping that first inclined me towards an interest in Islam, though it must be said that the lupine line of hassling touts that in the old days awaited the visitor immediately outside the old Tangier dock gates did their best to keep the secret well-springs of their faith well hidden.
Marrakech: some Dos and Don'ts
Do remember to hoard your spare change to give to beggars. Or as the Prophet said if you wish for a favor from God, at least favor the poor with a kind word.
The Battle of the Three Kings
On June 17th 1578 the young King Dom Sebastian of Portugal attended a service in the cathedral, where he was presented with a new standard embroidered with an imperial crown. For it was assumed that the dignity of the Kingdom of Portugal would ascend ever higher and he would become the first Christian Emperor of Morocco.