In a perfect world
‘Knowledge is very important in anarchistic thought. It’s different from other things. If you give someone half a cake, then you only have half left, but if you give them…
The freak show and the circus
In Copenhagen I visited two very different sorts of gardens. 1. The botanic gardens. There is nothing girly about appreciating flowers. This idea is just a symptom of an era…
An adventure
Svalbard may well be the most beautiful place that I’ve ever been to. It is also probably the toughest, and the storm that hit in the early morning of our…
A trowel and a toothbrush
The statues in Trondheim brought to mind a museum that Christian and I found quite by accident in Naxos last year. It was a close afternoon in September, and we…
In the land of the blind
It’s through their works and not their bones that you see the people who have gone before. The old Nidaros cathedral in Trondheim has had all the chequered history you’d…
Forward thinking
I had tired of carrying my snowshoes strapped to the side of my pack, making me stick in doorways and tearing at passers-by with their zig-zag metal claws. Gone are…
A momentary fit of pique
In a momentary departure from travel tales, I have recently been reading Yes Man, by Danny Wallace. For my own tastes he’s a bit too fond of exclamation marks, and…
Narvik-Trondheim
‘The first time I came to England was in 1950. I had very little money, and they were supposed only to let me stay three days, so I would have…
Polarmuseet
I loved the Polar Museum in Tromso. Mainly because I have a childish fascination with old-school heroes, and also in a small way because it is the sort of museum…
Fragments of conversation
I was talking to a Dixieland jazz player, in his sixties, in a bar in Gamla Stan. I told him how much I was enjoying hearing band jazz played live,…
