I was taking a group from Stonehenge to Bath a few weeks ago when I saw the sign for Highclere. “That’s the house they used for Downton Abbey,” I thought to myself in a lightbulb moment and told the group. I knew little about the super popular series, having seen only one complete episode. As […]
Diary of a Tourist Guide:
Archives for April 2017
CHUCKING OUT TIME
When I started guiding many years ago a friend working for British Airways told me how ihis bosses always stressed how important it was to treat the passengers well so they would book again with the same airline, particularly if they were businesspeople. (They probably said ‘businessmen’ but these are less sexist times.) Our guide […]
THE ITALIAN JOB
Ever since I had come across the novel A Canticle for Liebowitz in my father’s study as a boy I had wanted to go to Monte Cassino. The book was written by Walter Miller who had been one of the bombing crew which had destroyed the mountain top monastery in 1944 and, haunted by his role in […]
LONDON’S LARGEST HOUSE
I was asked if I was a Russian oligarch by a man walking his dog the other day. As I was wearing Marks and Spencer’s clothing and had just parked our Volkswagen, I gathered he was joking. We were in Highgate in North London standing outside Witanhurst which is said to be the largest house […]