An index of unsurpassed novelist portfolio examples by peerless novelists and storytellers!

Novelist Portfolio Examples

You’re in The Womb,’ says the woolly-hatted manager of The Dreaming, as he shows me into a room with a rosy, cosy 1970s vibe. I could have been in The Mush-Room, The Mystic, The Wanderer or The Moon. In the bathroom, I find the ‘vagina shower’ — pink…

An exclusive peek inside Charlotte Church's wacky Welsh retreat

Wheee! Do you remember freewheeling fearlessly downhill on your bike as a child? And the sweaty slog back to the top so you could do it all again? E-biking in northern Italy’s Trebbia Valley is just like that but without the lung-squeezing climb,…

Hiking, e-biking, rock climbing - why a multi-activity break in Italy could change your life

Launched in 2010, DCT technology, unique to Honda Motorcycles, has evolved into one of the most advanced power transmissions on 2 wheels today. With a choice of Manual and Automatic modes at your fingertips, you’ll never lose that exhilarating…

Rethink DCT: Honda’s revolutionary Dual Clutch Transmission

It felt unbelievable, didn’t it, on Monday night, when peace reigned around the world for those six golden hours that our social media fell silent.
At first, when there were no pinging WhatsApp notifications, I kept restarting my phone and rebooting…

The Facebook outage was exactly the social media reset we all need

Josa Keyes
Aug 4·8 min read
‘Count on your hand 5 things that can fly,’ says Willa Douglas.
The children scatter across the lawn — once a boggy field, now drained and brought into Willa’s magical garden. There’s a stream, a pond, bushes, thickets,…

Rewild your child — Wild for Words: the garden school where English comes alive

The adoption support fund
The adoption support fund (ASF) provides funds to local authorities (LAs) and regional adoption agencies (RAAs) to pay for essential therapeutic services for eligible adoptive and special guardianship order (SGO)…

Adoption support fund (ASF)

Josa Keyes
Aug 10, 2020·9 min read
Going crazy in the confines of my ‘hood, I’d been home alone pretty much since 11 March 2020. I had to break out, do something different and kick myself in the pants.
I’m lucky to be able to work to full capacity…

Confessions of a bootcamp virgin

Alex Innes was born with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) but the genetic eye condition never cramped his spirit. At 27, in 2016, he had eye surgery to improve his sight. Instead, in a rare complication, his usable vision plummeted from 84% to 7%.
Josa…

What it’s like to go blind in your twenties

Josa Keyes
Jan 18, 2020·6 min read
I wasted time and money as I couldn’t find anything clear online about how to reclaim my maiden name. So here’s a simple guide based on my own experience.
Josa Keyes wearing the pink antique fancy dress, in which…

How to reclaim your maiden name after divorce in the UK

Josa Keyes

The Gloria Bell film trailer says it all. Gloria, played by the luminous Julianne Moore, is in the throes of a mid-life awakening. Twelve years after divorce she’s done with being lonely, dealing with dismissive adult children and a boring…

At the age of 57, I went on 36 dates with different men in 12 months - here's what happened next

After a fraught, frantic and fabulous first three quarters of 2016, I discovered Tanya Goodin’s Time to Log Off digital retreats - just what I needed to calm down before winter.
There could be no hesitation. Tanya, a striking and determined blonde,…

Tanya Made Me Go To Digital Detox

I stood in the resin-scented darkroom trying to avoid getting cyanide on my bare feet and craning forward to understand 19th-century photography. Mark Luscombe-Whyte slipped a photographic plate into a chemical-filled fixer box, and the image…

Mark Luscombe-White, Julia Margaret Cameron and me

Middle Piccadilly... it conjures up a rumble of taxis and buses, the flash of electronic billboards and Eros poised on one toe, but that is far from the rural bliss to be found at this profoundly peaceful Dorset retreat.
Tucked away down a lane - you…

The 'Spa' for People Who Don't Like Spas

Summer 2014 has been for me a succession of attempts to overcome my fear of heights, ably assisted by my kind, patient 13-year-old son. It has also been the UK's most fabulous staycation summer for years, and I don't blame David Cameron for taking a…

Mr Cameron Holidays in Cornwall - And So Do We...

Under a fragrant ylang ylang tree, with New Orleans-style jazz tootling in my ears, I tried to make sense of the Southern Hemisphere's constellations, wonderfully bright overhead. There is very little light pollution to disturb your view on a…

Mauritius Mon Amour

A new piece of research suggested that people would rather have an electric shock than be left alone to think. So, I decided to see how I fared on the 'being alone with yourself' front, and took myself out quite deliberately, for an evening of pure,…

How to Take Yourself Out

Two crested grebes, with sly, sliding eyes, prick up the feathers on their heads and launch into a pecking, waterborne dance of what? Mating? Rivalry? I could not tell. An angry moorhen abandons its ambition to salvage an old flannel to bounce a…

Step Back in Time - A Weekend in Geneva

Where do you go when you are a single mum with a lively 13-year-old son? It is not easy as everything holidaywise is set up for more conventional families. You need somewhere safe for the young to feel free, when there aren't two of you to keep an…

Winter Sun for Single Mums in Egypt

'I want to buy THAT one,' the little boy declared, as he trotted past pointing a small determined finger at the Aston Martin. His father, hurrying in his three-year-old's wake, panted out: 'He didn't say that when he passed a Porsche just now'. A…

The Aston Martin Rapide S - The Drive of My Life

This is a collection that contains all your pieces.

Just starting out hunting and don’t want to shell out big bucks for a new rifle or shotgun? Or maybe you’d prefer a vintage piece with a little more character than you can get from a factory-new gun. Buying a used gun online can be a good opportunity…

6 tips to avoid getting screwed when buying a used hunting rifle or shotgun online

Being a diehard hunter is commendable. But sometimes it’s healthy to step away for a while.
It’s a classic case of keeping up with the Joneses. Being tuned into the hunting community, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that anything less…

It’s OK to take a break from hunting

Some people are born with an untamable wanderlust and thirst for adventure, such that no conventional office job or traditional nine-to-five will ever satisfy them. Britt Longoria embodies this mentality. Raised on the southern coast of Maine, she…

A conversation with big-game hunter Britt Longoria

If you’ve tried to buy a box of factory ammo in the past six months, or even components like powder or bullets for handloading, you’ve undoubtedly encountered bare shelves and strict quantity limitations on whatever happens to still be available. For…

A positive upshot of the ammo crisis? Conservation funding is at an all-time high

I’ll admit, after a beer or two, my perception of my own strength and toughness can get a bit inflated. But I can recall no time in my life when I’ve ever considered myself more than a would-be morsel to a 600-pound fur-covered battering ram with…

6 percent of Americans think they could beat a grizzly bear in hand-to-hand combat. They’re (dead) wrong.

When it comes to hunting, I’m a bit of a traditionalist. My go-to deer rifle is a single-shot Ruger No. 1. When hunting in bear territory, I’m the guy hauling around a big-bore single-action revolver on his hip rather than a polymer-framed…

Where do we draw the line on hunting technology?

The canine lymphoma came on unexpectedly and swiftly. In a few short days my little buddy Brisco went from his usual plucky self to an emaciated shadow who could barely stand. I stayed by his side until his very last breath. I get choked up thinking…

I love animals and I’m a hunter. No, that’s not a contradiction.

My dad’s little Winchester Model 94 Trapper always struck me as a petite, perhaps slightly anemic rifle. The short-barreled lever-action is lightweight and chambered to the gentle-shooting .30-30 Winchester. I’d shot plenty of .30-30s before. This…

Recoil: One of the most critical aspects of choosing a rifle

Many view wristwatches as outdated technology—a holdover from our parents’ generation, when you had to find a payphone to call for help if your car broke down. Now, of course, we’re perpetually carrying our phones with us—even into the field when…

What hunters should look for in a wristwatch

Few things in the natural world will get your blood pumping and adrenaline running like the gobble of a big tom turkey responding to your call. And few things will make your blood run cold like watching him approach and realizing you’re not totally…

How to pattern your shotgun in time for turkey season

You may recognize the name Townsend Whelen from his namesake cartridge, the thunderous .35 Whelen. Or perhaps you’ve come across one of his many articles or books on hunting and shooting. Maybe you’ve never heard of him at all, but he’s someone worth…

Learn marksmanship fundamentals from legendary hunter Colonel Townsend Whelen

It’s only natural for hunters to wonder what it would be like to get paid to be outdoors, actively working to safeguard the game they enjoy hunting and their habitat. Sounds like a dream job, right? But the life of a conservation officer isn’t all…

Do you have what it takes to be a conservation officer?

“That will either be the best deal ever or a really painful lesson in buying cheap gear,” TUP Founder Karl Hylle told me as he looked over my new tent, doubt etched on his face. I’d found the ALPS Mountaineering Greycliff, a two-man, three-season…

Review: ALPS Mountaineering Greycliff Tent

Hunters want to celebrate their successes in the field by showcasing photos of their trophies and hunts, often on social media. And that’s totally normal. But at what point are we no longer merely sharing our excitement, but instead discouraging new…

Are trophy photos on social media discouraging new hunters?

Sometimes hunting isn’t glamorous. Sometimes, it involves a whole lot of sitting, waiting, and patiently observing, eyes welded to a pair of binoculars or a spotting scope in the hopes of detecting the slightest movement revealing your quarry’s…

Tips for more successful (and less tedious) glassing

Tag soup, as it’s known in the hunting community, is what a hunter is left ruefully sipping on instead of savoring a choice piece of backstrap or turkey leg when they fail to fill their tag.
It’s a common recipe, served frequently at the end of most…

A time-honored recipe for tag soup

When European settlers first arrived in Africa, they brought with them trusty muzzleloaders that, though they may have served them well in the old country, proved far too anemic to dispatch the thick-skinned, heavy-boned dangerous game native to…

On safari with a classic big-bore double rifle

With the holidays and the end of the calendar year rapidly approaching, many of us seek charities to which to donate, either for altruistic reasons or for the sake of lowering our tax burden. Regardless of your motivation, if you’re an outdoorsman,…

10 great hunting and conservation organizations for this season’s charitable giving

Deer hunting, regardless of where it’s done or how, has some universal components. And perhaps the foremost is the inevitable hunger brought on by sitting in a tree stand, hiding in a ground blind, or still-hunting for hours in frigid temps. Staving…

What’s the ideal deer stand snack?

Sometimes a great idea never gets the attention and appreciation it deserves. It can be a matter of poor timing or poor execution, or sometimes just plain bad luck. Such is the origin story of the .41 Remington Magnum, a high-powered handgun…

The under-loved middle-child mag: The .41 Remington Magnum

Evald Flisar has, in his own words, been “a bad boy.” And a prolific one, in all things: Yes, there were three wives, but also 96 countries visited and 35 books translated into 143 languages. Flisar has written in two — English and Slovene — though…

The Slovenian Writer Who Travels the World With His Words

On her first day in Bali, my friend Charishma was surprised. There was a lot of honking. She was in Ubud, home to all mimickers of Eat, Pray, Love — shouldn’t this feel slow, like a deep-tissue massage for the soul? She and I live in Mumbai, where…

Your Guide to What Could Be the Most Perfect Island Paradise

Abdourahman Waberi has to be agile, in language and in life. The novelist and poet hails from Djibouti, where, at home with his mother, he spoke Somali. He was schooled in and writes in French, and spends much of his time living in American English…

Listen to the Bard of Djibouti

After the poetry reading, a gaggle of teenage girls follow Yoko Tawada out of the room. Oblivious to their presence, she brings me into the author signing booth, telling me she can talk now, because “no one will come to ask me to sign anything.” The…

Listen to This Poet Blending German and Japanese

Growing up, when my family packed up our Volvo station wagon for summer trips to South Carolina or Florida, we had a routine to ensure the long rides didn’t bore us. We weren’t much for road-trip license-plate games. Instead, we played sound system…

Four Great Audiobooks for Road Trips

Early morning, dirt, skin, sweat and muscle. So much muscle. This is what comprises dawn for the gentlemen of the Ram Singh Akhara, an organization devoted to teaching north India’s age-old, Persian-influenced grappling-style wrestling to the next…

Dirty and Holy: Indian Wrestling

So you’re a World Traveler or a Fancy Businessperson jet-setting between Dubai and New York, Cairo and San Francisco, Abu Dhabi and London. And now, oh dear, you’ve become a Grouchy Businessperson whose important…

Laptop Ban Got You Down? Here's a Suggestion …

It was Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and Muslims and non-Muslims alike thronged the streets of Mumbai. Billboards announced sales on shoes. Boys wore their finest taqiyahs. But at the southern tip of the city, in the Fort…

Narendra Modi's Worst Nightmare

It seems like everywhere you look these days, you find a country exploding at its seams with debates about immigration. From a giant wall between the U.S. and Mexico to streams of refugees flowing through Europe, the topic is a familiar one. Another…

Voices From Another Immigrant Nation

The following article contains information about depression and suicide that may be triggering for some readers.
It was the kind of television event that dominates dinner conversations for days, like the time Bruce Jenner became Caitlyn during a…

India: Model for a New Psychiatry?

Kurokawa Yusaku has his routine: At lunchtime, he ducks out of his office and heads for one of his favorite ramen shops. He picks out his order on the vending machine that dispenses order tickets (standard ordering practice at any ramen joint). He…

Here's Where to Go for 6,000 Ramen Shops

Walking through the sun-saturated courtyards of Mumukshu Bhawan, one encounters an array of pilgrims as varied as if Chaucer himself had written them. There’s an orange-clad sannyasi — an old man who has given up family and possessions to wander…

One Last Pilgrimage Before Dying

It takes me more than two hours to reach the office of Mumbai-based startup Fynd, which sits about 10 miles from my house. As the car moves, inchworm-like, along roads turned into parking lots, I wonder about the millions who make these sorts of…

How to Live in Asia Without Stepping Out of Your Apartment

From the bowing, the formal presentation of business cards and the salaryman three-piece attire all around, you’d think Ippei Torii’s business place were another Tokyo corporate office. The hustle is worthy of the private sector; the mannerisms are…

Making the 'Japanese Dream' Open to All?

OZY and Predix from GE — the cloud-based development platform built for industry — have partnered to bring you an inside look at the future of digital industries, where people, data and productivity meet.
Just minutes outside the city limits of…

The Robots Are Coming ... For the Farms

In this occasional series, OZY takes to streets and neighborhoods across the globe to ask a simple question: “How was your day?”
Khushboo Singh, 24
Rajni Dubey, 26
Vardhika Pandey, 28
Varanasi, India
We answer the new 181 helpline, which connects…

Portraits of a Rape Crisis SWAT Team in India

Amrit Kaur Lohia can’t tell you her vocal range or really get technical about the traditional Indian stringed instrument she plays, the sarangi. Ask her about influences and she drops some heavy names: Christina Aguilera and famed Punjabi poet Amrita…

Where Punjabi Folk Meets Aretha Soul

In this occasional series, OZY takes to streets and neighborhoods across the globe to ask a simple question: “How was your day?”
Rajendar Kumar, 26
Varanasi, India
I sit here every day, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., on the corner, doing this job with my younger…

They Give Useless Money a Brand-New Life

Across newspapers and televisions in the world’s largest democracy, there’s one business message being blasted by the ruling party: 70 years after the end of British colonial rule, it is time for India to start making things. The call to create is…

It Doesn't Take a Big Robot to Kill This Industry

Late on this night in Tokyo, the Romanian tattoo artist known simply as Dali still hasn’t left his parlor. The dude is busy. His clients come in for all sorts of designs. Many women want a meaningful phrase or a couple of Kanji characters inked. Guys…

In Japan, Tattoos Are No Longer Just for Gangsters

I’ll bring the journaling prompts, you bring your cozily-dressed creative self, a journal, and a pen. Native’s address: 207 N Tennessee St McKinney, TX 75069

Full Moon in Virgo Circle at Native McKinney this Thursday, March 9, 2023 at 7pm

Here are all my notes from my journal page that July 2021 day I went back to therapy after stopping my anxiety meds in October 2020. my therapist’s recommendations for lifestyle changes to help manage anxiety without medication: start recognizing…

lifestyle changes my therapist recommended when I re-started therapy in 2021 + told her I wanted to stay off anxiety meds

Ever since we arrived in California in August 2013 and I weighed myself for the first time since before we got married in May and saw I’d gained over 20 pounds in that one summer, it’s been on my mental to-do list to lose weight. now, I’ve lost over…

how I finally reached a goal weight for the first time after 8 years

here’s my best hot toddy recipe from the home bartending workshops I teach at the millhouse mckinney. I always tell people to make hot toddies as my magic cure for all sorts of cold symptoms. purely wives tales of course, I’m not a doctor! you likey?…

how to make the. best. hot toddy for cold symptoms

I was musing on my definition of magic as I got ready with my color magic practice (matching my bottom eyeliner to my arctic fox aquamarine hair) earlier so figured I could try to document as much as I can in 10 minutes. I think that real life magic…

how to be an adorable badass with arctic fox aquamarine hair

The evolution of this recipe began when Reid cooked an entire meal for me for the very first time one ‘monthiversary’ (as we called them) senior year in high school. He made salad, steak, and this cheesy hashbrown casserole as the side. I loved it so…

the cheesy hashbrown casserole I bring to every potluck

These ground turkey lettuce wraps were one of the first recipes I considered having made up totally on my own. I was so excited, I put TWO exclamation points in the title of my iPhone note – “Made up my own lettuce wrap recipe!!” Inspired by PF…

my easy one-pan go-to ground turkey lettuce wraps recipe

A friend texted me today to ask for my “professional cocktail” expertise about easy cocktails to make at home (but also don’t taste bad for someone who doesn’t alcohol usually) and that was an exciting first, so I told her: I’ve so got you covered on…

easy cocktails to make at home to appear to be a legitimate adult

monday, june 15, 2020 8:59a – I don’t remember my dreams already except I feel like we were on a houseboat at some point. thursday, june 18, 2020 8:38am – Disc golf course on a horseback lesson barn land, Reid played with others while I got a tour of…

dream diary entries june 2020

september 8, 2021 // 8:11am good morning on this wild wild wednesday! I call it that because Reid left out of town yesterday, meaning I’m left to my own devices today, which means it gets very wild wild west-y ’round these here parts. well, I am in…

catch up on life so far in 2021

today, I’m attending a members-only event at the Millhouse McKinney – the women’s creative coworking space I joined in January 2020 and now teach home bartending workshops at. it’s the Millhouse’s Membership Engagement Coordinator, and my friend,…

how to come up with a 90s party outfit day-of event

i’d struggled with acne from the time I was like, eleven. actually, I remember the scent of using my first face wash at a sleepover in 5th grade, which is yeah, 10-11 years old. and, any out-of-my-control acne issues were only exacerbated by my…

how to create a skincare ritual to manifest the best skin of your life

i’ve been saying i want to lose weight since 2013, when reid and i got married and i gained 20 lbs in a summer. so, this is me committing to actually make a plan and take intentional, trackable action towards that end in december 2020. first off,…

how to make your get fit plan with “fuck being fat”

Here’s what I feel like I had to learn in 2020 before executing on what I’m planning for my December intentions: I basically spent a whole bunch of time coming up with ideas for both blogs + books but never really committing to which I wanted to…

december intentions + writing updates for this year

Today, I thought I’d wake up and write about stuff I thought about in the shower. I sometimes see it as a game to retrace my trains of thoughts to figure out, “How the heck did I start thinking about that?” I’m going through the Anxiety & Worry…

thoughts I thought while in the shower today — “on me, my inner critic, & I”

Figure I’ll actually give this a try for one day out of the 7,852 days I’ve been saying I should. This being: just wake up and write about whatever I want to write about that day, then publish it to my blog. Today, I’m thinking about social anxiety.…

wake up, post

I have this devotional on my Kindle with journal prompts about finding the magic in everyday life. However, I’ve fallen behind as of late (no surprise there), but also, no worries, because I just catch right on up whenever I happen to think about it!…

spring breezes [on signs & synchronicities]

[I began writing this post in January 2020 as I was going through the MasterClass. Just put the finishing touches on it this morning and finally publishing it now!] Last year for Christmas, I received an annual pass to masterclass.com as a gift that…

Margaret Atwood’s MasterClass on Creative Writing

Ever open up your journal or notebook or iPhone memos, and feel like you’re looking at the scribblings of a madwoman? Anyone? No, just me? Well, for whoever is with me, I feel your pain. I’ve been jotting down random bits and pieces of possible story…

Danielle’s Magical Sheets of Ideas

I started out doing my daily tarot reading at the beginning of the day, but then I would get excited and distracted by tarot and it would be harder to start writing. So, yesterday I tried a daily routine where I enjoy it as my hobby in the evening…

Tarot Tuesday: My Daily Spread

Since I wrote about it last year, I've become addicted to travelling with only carry-on luggage. I've skipped long check-in lines and gone straight through to security screenings and immigration controls. I've sailed past the masses huddled around…

Tips for travelling with carry-on luggage only: While I'll never check in bags again

No one likes to talk about COVID much anymore. Our various governments don't publicise the weekly statistics as they did before and most people aren't interested in them, despite infections rising again. There are no mask mandates. It's only…

I caught COVID on a cruise and still had a wonderful time

Up on the 16th deck of Pacific Encounter there's an exclusive-access area with a private swimming pool, breezy cabanas facing the ocean, a well-stocked bar and snacks from Luke Mangan on call. On the decks below are the busy Lido pool and the popular…

Upper deck luxury: Inside P&O's Byron Beach Club

Australians travelling to Europe this European summer might find they have "sticker shock" when it comes to booking hotels. I've heard from friends, searching for hotels after a three-year absence, that hotel prices are unexpectedly high, due to…

Hotel room prices in Europe have skyrocketed. Here's how to find a bargain

Imagine, if instead of booking a room in a hotel the usual way, the hotel issues you with a digital token that you can sell or trade if you no longer need it, or if its value rises enough to make it an investment. That is already happening through…

Hotels shouldn't be bragging about embracing cryptocurrency or NFTs

The earthquake that shattered parts of Turkey and Syria early this month has created a humanitarian crisis on a scale that is unfathomable. It's a massive task to house the displaced, rebuild structures and heal families suffering immense shock and…

Christchurch 2011 earthquake: City's comeback makes it one of the world's most pleasant

In the days when people could smoke in restaurants in Paris, I remember sitting at tables so close together that I had to keep moving my plate to avoid ash falling into it from the cigarette of the person next to me. The idea of dining elbow-to-elbow…

COVID be damned, communal dining is back

Fijians embrace tourists like few others and not only because tourism makes up 38 per cent of Fiji's economy. "Welcome home" is the ubiquitous greeting at every resort and it's heartfelt. Generous, warm and community-minded, Fijians have long lived…

Fiji, sustainability and climate change: Five ways tourists can help the locals

It was a sad week for aviation geeks as Boeing delivered its last 747 this week to cargo carrier Atlas after 52 years of service. The "jumbo" was the first plane many Australians flew on overseas holidays, but it also brought hundreds of thousands of…

Private jet carbon emissions by the wealthy: There's no flight shaming the rich

Sometimes you instantly fall in love with a place. Sometimes you develop an instant dislike. And sometimes a place just grows on you. I was always amazed when friends visiting me in New York didn't passionately declare their love for the city. In…

Could I live there? The question that reveals if you really love a place

For every definition of paradise, Fiji has a resort to suit. Here's your luxury guide to where to stay in Fiji. The name alone conjures up all the clichés of tropical island bliss. White sand beaches. Crystal clear waters. Lush gardens and palm…

The best luxury resorts and hotels in Fiji

Australians really took up the challenge of travelling in their own backyard these past two years. According to Tourism Australia, spending on overnight and day trips in the past year exceeded levels before the pandemic. This year, it's expected that…

Need a mini-holiday? Hop a local train for a few hours

With its crystal-clear waters and decked-out resorts extending warm hospitality, the Maldives offers the ultimate in beach getaways. But the idyllic archipelago may not be here forever. I’ve been to the Maldives several times, despite flight…

The Maldives: Coral Reefs and Climate Change Adaption

Although 2023 is shaping up as a more normal year for travel after three abnormal ones, we can't pretend travel will cease being complicated. Flight disruptions, labour shortages, high energy and food prices, disruptions due to climate and a global…

Traveller's 23 top travel trends for 2023

In the very first scene of Mad Men, the 1960s-era drama series which premiered in 2007, the cool and unknowable lead character, ad man Don Draper, sits at a table in a corner of a bar working on his pitch for Lucky Strike cigarettes. The room is…

Mad Men Manhattan: The classic cocktail bars of New York City

Sometimes we find ourselves a long way from home at Christmas. We don't always want to be, but the convergence of the long school break and the festive season means it's the best opportunity all year to go somewhere far away. Many head for the…

Spending Christmas overseas away from family: Why being an Xmas 'orphan' is not all bad

We might get the idyllic beach summer we've been dreaming of this year, but there's something more frightening than sharks and jellyfish in the water. Plastic. A lot of plastic. About 12 million tonnes of plastic pieces flood into the world's oceans…

Plastic pollution in oceans: What can travellers do about it?

They are proud of their crocs in northern Queensland. Crocodile tours. Crocodile farms. Croc burgers on the menu. I have a healthy respect for the crocodile, especially one that's closer than 500 metres. But I'm not sure why they capture so much…

Daintree rainforest wildlife: Pythons a problem without their natural predator - us

A few months ago, an Ayurvedic doctor at a Fiji resort told me that I "think too much" and prescribed a seven-day program of Shirodhara, a traditional healing treatment where warm oil is dripped slowly on the patient's "third eye." I was to do this…

The unhealthy side of wellness tourism

I've only been to Egypt once, a few months before the pandemic, and it was one of the most outstanding journeys of my life. The unfathomable richness of its history and treasures, the beauty of the Nile, the fabulous food and the buzzy energy of…