Welcome to over 200 entries! This page is to help you find your way via five pleasure paths. They are:
1. Original fiction and writing tips
- Read my new thriller Blood Summit. It is not for the faint-hearted. If you read the novel in a book group, you may find Blood Summit: reading group questions helpful.
- Dip into my seven (so far) famous Hotel Stories, featuring the world’s most brilliant, unpredictable and occasionally homicidal hotel manager, Ms N; her beautiful but naive ally, Tatiana; and Ms N’s unique, hilarious methods of dealing with awkward hotel guests and, sometimes, colleagues.
- Explore my novel Biotime (and let me know if you would like more).
- Wonder at my existential US travel memoir, The Americans. Was I the last person to hitch through 27 states of the USA, in 1979?
- You can see top tips about writing under Writing about Writing, for example 2 sets of brilliant tips on “how to write”; How to work better: 10 rules? Or not?; How to write: Orhan Pamuk; and my own thoughts on How to write. Finally, you may enjoy my two most popular blogs: 7 tips for writing the perfect article (part 1 of 2) and The 4 elements of the perfect article: Nut-grafs & Cosmic Kickers (part 2 of 2)
2. Reviews
I was prompted to start writing reviews by so enjoying the awesome Anthony Trollope that I felt I had to share him. I received a strong response, so thought I would try a few others. You can see them all or sample the list below:
Which Vienna cafes are the best (one of my most popular reviews, regularly updated)
DON’T PANIC: a communications masterclass 10/10
The Wave: 5 reasons to miss it & 7 reasons you must see it 9/10
Spectre: 5 reasons to miss it & 5 reasons you’ll see it 4/10
Star Wars: The Force Awakens: 6 reasons I was surprised 8/10
Making fun of the English? The great George Mikes 10/10
Independence Day 2: Oh, my God! 1/10
Football: how to fix FIFA and World Cup corruption
How to find your way (maps and navigation)
“Lion” – the film. The real India?
Fine Austrian movies: Toni Erdmann vs Wilde Maus
Central European melancholy 10/10
Fine Austrian movies: Toni Erdman vs Wilde Maus
How to read P G Wodehouse: a practical guide
The Third Man. Movie magic – 10/10
Get Out – an instant classic? 9/10
Zombeavers? Yes! Prometheus? Yes! A girl walks home alone at night? Not yet… and Tokyo Tribes 9/10
Museum of Innocence: how men think? 8/10
6 reasons “The Neon Demon” makes “Showgirls” look like Shakespeare 2/10
The Internet. 7 reasons why it will destroy civilisation
Nine questions about the Alan Clark Diaries: 0/10? or 10/10?
Vienna and Istanbul: the best cities on earth?
3. Existential and women
Reflections on happiness, the meaning of life, and women, e.g.:
Wonder Woman and Wartime Moral Confusion (WMC)
How to be happy: 11 simple tools
The one with the links to happiness
Women in fiction: Atomic Blonde and Blood Summit
Tuchman’s Law (or “Always look on the bright side”?): 9/10
Things are getting worse, right? Wrong. Here’s why
Want to smartphone detox? Here’s how
The Simpsons – existential, circular fantasy
Spectre: another reason to miss it? Women. 4/10
4. Journalism
This is mostly pieces I have actually published in the print media, collected together here. These are the as-published versions except that I may have published them under another name.
– Financial Times, “Behind every great woman…” (challenges facing male partners of successful women)
– Financial Times, “Where the wall came down” (a walk around the Berlin Wall)
– Financial Times, “Island with well-hidden treasures” (Lundy Island)
– Financial Times, “A tale of two all-in resorts” (German holiday resorts are better than French ones)
– Financial Times, “Rag’n’bones to riches” (80th birthday of Mary, from Arsenal)
– Financial Times, “Austrian idyll far from the well-worn pistes” (the joy of Lech)
– Financial Times, “When dinner becomes the last supper” (astonishing German waiters)
– Financial Times, “Enough Buddhas for today” (Bangkok with children)
– Financial Times, “We’ll soon all beg to fly business” (how airlines plan to make us upgrade)
– Die Welt, “Im Dienst Ihrer Majestät” (in German: women’s diplomatic careers)
– Financial Times, “Balmy breezes and beach bars in Berlin”
– Financial Times, “Where even experts fear to tread” (why try guided ski-ing?)
– Financial Times, “Sole mates” (Strolz ski boots)
– Boston Globe, “New Zealand at a crossroads” (over-development of NZ tourism)
– Financial Times, “The Penguin’s Distressed. We’d Better Go” (NZ eco-tourism)
– Financial Times, “The Joy of Roaming the English Countryside” (long-distance footpaths)
– Financial Times Magazine, “All the Rage in Berlin” (Little Traffic Light Men)
– Financial Times, “From Tears to Triumph” (why use ski schools?)
– Financial Times Magazine, “All the Rage in Lech, Austria” (heated ski lift seats)
– Financial Times, “Rattle and Roll to the Alps” (night ski-trains)
– Financial Times, “Charmed By the No-Frills Alternative” (basic country hotels)
– Boston Globe, “A flaming end to Carnival and winter’s woes” (Cologne Carnival)
– Financial Times, “When Tourist Reinvention Spins Out of Control” (the over-development of Barcelona)
– Boston Globe, “A Temple to Faith, Time and Resolve” (Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia)
– Financial Times, “Nice Buildings, Shame About the Events” (Can hosting sporting events give a country good PR?)
– Boston Globe, “When hush, crowds descend” (Vienna’s Central Cemetery)
– Boston Globe, “History in the Tropics” (St Helena before the airport)
5. The latest thing
If you’re a regular visit, you can browse my latest blogs in the column on the right (“LATEST POSTS”). Recent pieces include: How to be understood: 7 tips; A new Hotel Story: The Three Heads, about the publication of my 7th Hotel Story; Happiness and small victories, a rather personal post about what makes me happy; and Transience and Fat Lama, about the future of ownership, sacred carpentry, and maps. Look down the right hand column to see what’s new.
The tremendous Fat Lama logo
Finally, if you enjoy fresh, original writing, you can friend me on Facebook or sign up for e-mail updates (top right – see the “click here” blue button).
