Selected articles
Travelling to Timbuctoo
An hour later, as dusk settled, a diminutive grey ferry, too old to have seen service at Dunkirk, came chugging across to pick us up. Men as lean as storks stood on each corner, leaning on bamboo poles to assist the groaning engine.
Pity you came the quick way - meeting up at Timbuctoo
For me it was as if the prehistoric rock art of the Sahara had been brushed back into life by the breath of God.
An introduction to Mali
Whatever you come to Mali for, it is the memory of the people that actually catch your imagination.
Sahara Night
Instead of providing a direct answer Omer told me to keep a look out for camels. They are much more dangerous than hijackers, he said, for they mistake the reflection of the moon on the road for water. I peered alertly out of the window, keeping an eye out for both camels and hijackers.
Timbuctu
Only after the colonial presence of the French had ended was the true wealth of Timbuctu to be revealed as the great private libraries of the scholar citizens had been patiently copied, preserved and transcribed.
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