August is a spectacular month for stargazing, dominated by the dazzling Perseids, one of the most famous meteor showers of the year, and accompanied by six other showers that light up the summer sky. As darkness arrives earlier and the

As the equinox approaches on 22 September, the balance of the year begins to shift. Nights draw in earlier, the air carries the first crisp hint of autumn, and conditions for stargazing become some of the best of the year.

As the clocks go back this month, the longer evenings bring the perfect excuse to step outside, wrap up warm and enjoy the night sky. Look north and you’ll see the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) sinking low, while Cepheus and Cassiopeia

During my time as BBC World Affairs producer, I visited some of the most dangerous and inhospitable places on earth. For a couple of decades, I produced televised news content on the frontlines of the world’s main war zones. I

When I said to people we were going to Trieste for our holidays, I saw puzzlement in their eyes. ‘Where is Trieste?’ was the most common response, or ‘I don’t know anybody who’s been there.’ If you don’t know where Trieste is then

For a long time, the small mountain village of St Moritz in the Swiss Alps has had a reputation of being a playground for the mega-rich. In the last few years, the local tourist board has rebranded St Moritz with

When talking to audiences across the country about my books and my work as a former BBC World Affairs producer I have often been asked to describe what it’s like to work undercover in countries with hostile regimes, risking arrest

The year is 1963. A British European Airways plane descends into Yeşilköy Airport, its silver wings glinting under the Turkish sun. Below, Istanbul unfurls: minarets, domes, rooftops clustered by the Bosphorus. A city straddling two continents. Inside the terminal, a man

It takes at least an hour by taxi from Tehran’s new Imam Khomeini Airport to reach the centre of the Iranian capital. As you approach the city limits, the golden dome of the Tomb of Imam Khomeini looms on the

What happens when a republic built on liberty becomes shackled by alliances it no longer understands? Could such an alliance, distinguished by a drift in foreign policy from serving national interests to advancing loyalties that are longer questioned, pose a greater