Who Is Charles Cumming? Winner of the CIWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award, A Foreign Country is an intrinsically written spy novel that highlights the secret world. The author, Charles Cumming, was clearly inspired to write spy thrillers after he was approached by MI6 in 1995 and this is…
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Beautiful side streets housing vintage shops and historical landmarks with views that will leave you breathless – literally with the hills that you need to climb – this is the village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie in the Lot Region of France. Perched on a steep cliff 100m above the Lot River a…
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One thing that the Midi Pyrenees has in abundance is beautiful villages and towns to explore and the medieval town of Sarlat in the Perigord Noir should definitely be on anyone’s travel list. The History of Sarlat Tracing its history back to the 9th Century Sarlat rapidly grew from…
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The History of Martel in the Dordogne During time of economic wealth many merchants’ houses were built here but with the arrival of the Hundred Years War came poverty forcing people to move outside the town walls to cheaper accommodation. The town did recover relatively quickly and another period of…
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Rocamadour, is both a pilgrimage site and a beautiful village that we stumbled upon whilst exploring the Dordogne. During the day there is a hive of activity; shopping along the narrow streets or spending time exploring one of the many religious monuments. At night, the ambiance of the village changes…
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Donna Leon was an author I had never heard of before doing a random search on a well-known website for new authors to explore. Now however, I wish I had found her much earlier. Named as one of The Times (London) Fifty Greatest Crime Writers, Donna Leon has lived in various…
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Greenwich is on the outskirts of the city and from my view on the bank of the Thames I can see Canary Wharf to my left, to the right I can see the Shard and the Gherkin. The difference here is that I can also sit in peace and quiet and…
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Souillac: A Great Location in the Dordogne Having never really explored France before, even though we are only a short drive away, the decision was made that 2013 would be the year of discovery. Before visiting this area of France we had only ever travelled to Normandy and Paris but…
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Set in the 1920’s, The Great Gatsby has no doubt been on University reading lists for many years and now, thanks to the recent Hollywood tribute to this work I am sure many others have turned to this American Classic. Through the eyes of Nick Carraway, a Yale Graduate…
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Pulling off the main road we missed the small sign and had to do a u-turn. Along the small dirt track, just wide enough for one vehicle, we begun to consider whether we had chosen the right place for our latest getaway. Before we knew it we had pulled alongside…
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