I still can't quite believe that there are people in the developed world who don't take holidays and never go anywhere, but I accept that it's true ... and now articles are coming out saying that Americans (who have by far the lowest number of paid holidays year) are suffering from vacation deficit …
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An afternoon with five novelists
In anticipation of an afternoon tea with five novelists as part of the Perth International Arts Festival, I’ve been furiously reading books like Marina Lewycka’s A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Liza Dalby’s Tale of Murasaki and Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep, and just got hold of Aminata Forna’s …
Muddled-up seasons
It's meant to be summer here Down Under, and yesterday we reached 38 degrees C, but right now I'm sitting in warm winter pyjamas listening to a howling wind outside. And when we spoke to Germany and Switzerland over the weekend, everybody complained that the temperatures were about 15 degrees higher …