The train can reasssure you in awful places -- a far cry from the anxious sweats of doom aeroplanes inspire, or the nauseating gas-sickness of the long-distance bus, or the paralysis that afflicts the car passenger.

Even the most distant and exotic place has its parallel in ordinary life.

There is no faster way of destroying a man, or mocking his ideas, than making him fashionable.

A novel captures essence that is not possible in any other form.

Cooking requires confident guesswork and improvisation experimentation and substitution, dealing with failure and uncertainty in a creative way

The grand tour is just the inspired man's way of heading home.

Cooking requires confident guesswork and improvisation experimentation and substitution, dealing with failure and uncertainty in a creative way.

Cooking requires confident guesswork and improvisation-- experimentation and substitution, dealing with failure and uncertainty in a creative way.

The stars which at midnight looked like a spillway of broken pearls, did not shine at this hour; they were holes of light, like eye squints in black masks.

A travel book is a book that puts you in the shoes of the traveler, and it's usually a book about having a very bad time; having a miserable time, even better.