Writer and film-maker Tahir Shah – in his 30s, married, with two small children – was beginning to wilt under brash, cramped, ennervating British city life. Flying in the face of friends’ advice, he longed to fulfil his dream...

Shortly after the 2005 London bombings, Tahir Shah was thrown into a Pakistani prison on suspicion of spying for Al-Qaeda. What sustained him during his terrifying, weeks-long ordeal were the stories his father told him as a child in...

Travelling across Morocco and Algeria on a shoestring, this is the story of the people the author met on her travels – fascinating characters, quirky encounters all told with insight and humour

When Suzanna Clarke and her husband bought a dilapidated house in the Moroccan town of Fez, their friends thought they were mad. Located in a maze of donkey-trod alleyways, the house – a traditional riad – was beautiful but...

The author and her husband have managed to delve into life in the Medina, discovering the life of the women behind the walls of the Medina, as they spoke Arabic, a real asset in those days. A vivid portrayal...

Michael Palin picks A YEAR IN MARRAKESH by Peter Mayle as one of his top ten books. One of those travel classics in the Englishman (of some means) abroad vein, this shows a great deal of sensitivity to both...

An idealistic young Englishman, Harry Summerfield, befriends an American oil explorer in Gibraltar in the 1930s. Their meeting sparks a journey for both men that will take them across Morocco and northern Africa, to encounter the harsh realities of...

It’s two days before Christmas and wife and mother of two, Clara Dunphy, has finally finished her last-minute shopping on Oxford Street. On a whim she decides to treat herself to a champagne cocktail at the Connaught hotel, where...

This is a fictional account of a pirate raid which occured off of the Cornish coastline in the 1600s, but is actually based on historical facts that have been meticulously researched. 60 villagers are captured and stolen off to...

Two little girls are taken by their mother to Morocco on a 1960s pilgrimage of self-discovery. For Mum it is not just an escape from the grinding conventions of English life but a quest for personal fulfilment: her children,...