Once in a very long time you come across a book that is far, far more than the ink, the glue and the paper, a book that seeps into your blood.

Previous journeys had taught me the danger of taking too much stuff.

Where does one go in a tremendous city like Calcutta to find insider information? I recalled India's golden rule: do the opposite of what would be normal anywhere else.

The first rule of an expedition is that everyone should stick together.

Move to a new country and you quickly see that visiting a place as a tourist, and actually moving there for good, are two very different things.

For me, a journey to Damascus is an amazing hunt from beginning to end, a slice through layers of history in search of treasure.

The very fact that a Frenchman was prepared, after two minutes of conversation, to be so friendly towards anyone, especially one who had come from England, made me restless.