Chris Sullivan visits the Mediterranean island under British rule from 1800-1964, but finds the local culture far more illuminating. Ever since I started running Soho nightclubs in 1980 I’ve wanted to visit Malta. At that time, Soho was virtually controlled by such larger-than-life Maltese characters such as Big Frank Mifsud, and they intrigued me. I… … Keep Reading
Chris Sullivan follows in the footsteps of James Brooke to discover the lost secrets of Sarawak on a truly incredible journey to Borneo. M first sight of Borneo was in a David Attenborough retrospective special. He visited the world’s third largest island in 1956, met tribes who seemed from another century and rescued a baby… … Keep Reading
A central hotel that provided a haven for guests during WWII proves a more than suitable billet for a visit to coronavirus London Upon our return from a three-day visit to London during the coronavirus pandemic, I asked my teenage children what their favourite part of the trip was. “The hotel!” they both said in… … Keep Reading
Gustav Temple finds that, forced to eschew the pleasures of a European city break, Oxford delivers just as edifying an experience Taking one’s annual summer holiday during a global pandemic produces one or two changes to one’s usual habits. Images of the azure skies, Gothic cathedrals and café terraces of Europe and beyond are somewhat… … Keep Reading
I still find the Eurostar really rather wonderful. You get on a train at St. Pancras and alight some two hours later at Le Gare Du Nord into a different world, where the attitudes, tastes, smells, people and culture are as different from London as sand is to salt. Undeniably, it is quite an anomalous… … Keep Reading
From the eleventh floor balcony of a hotel overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the horizon flashing with lightning, brassy wisps of Mariachi music wafting up from somewhere through the heat of the night, was the sense that we were definitely in Mexico. It had taken nearly 20 hours to reach this moment of Mexican awareness, though… … Keep Reading
On a recent trip to Rajasthan, I discovered that not only does India possess its famous wealth of history and architecture, but it is also one of the most natural habitats for the travelling Chap. My journey took me first to Delhi, only nine hours away by plane but, as soon as you land, the… … Keep Reading
Paul French, author of City of Devils, takes us on a walking tour of Old Shanghai, recounting the tales of decadence, opium and freebooting of the 1930s and what remains of that era in modern Shanghai In its heyday, Shanghai was the real deal when it came to anonymity – a chap could walk down… … Keep Reading
Kentucky is regarded as the first of the Southern states, sitting south of the Ohio River on the eastern side of the United States. It is a green and pleasant land, literally. There are miles of gently rolling hills, clean air and plentiful amounts of fine pure mineral water. All these elements play a large… … Keep Reading
Why am I writing about Disneyland in The Chap, you ask? Because, for the past four years, Disneyland in Anaheim California been the epicentre (not Epcot Center – that one’s in Florida,) of Dapper Day, and Rose Callahan and I had been invited by the event’s organizer to give a presentation about our book I… … Keep Reading
Miami greets the arriving driver with a glittering cluster of skyscrapers flanked by bright blue sea. As soon as the heart of the city has caught your attention, you’re in it, cruising through mid-town Miami with the buildings getting taller and taller and the sea coming nearer, like the opening scene of a disaster movie… … Keep Reading
Portofino – diminutive and sublime – has long been on the summer trail of the terminally chic. It is, after all, the perfect expression of the Ligurian coast, its soft multi-hued building facades guarding, sentry-like, the sunlight-accented azure waters upon which a collection of yachts bob up and down, their unhurried skippers lounging upon spotless… … Keep Reading