A chance question from a seven year old and an old manuscript from my ninety year old grandmother set me off in search of the 128 5th gg-parents of my daughter.

Kings, paupers, highway men, eminent lawyers, newspaper tycoons, bigamists, slave traders, coal miners and cotton workers; just some of the ancestors uncovered.

My 4x great grandparents never divorced but both remarried while the other was still alive. She first, him later but only he was prosecuted for bigamy.

My grandmother knew her late husband's uncle had been killed in World War 1 but nothing else. A little investigation showed he had an interesting story ....

Introduction to a collection of walking routes, with maps and descriptions, local to the corner of North Staffordshire which is home to The Sticks

Location of car parks convenient for the walks described on this site

We watch the bleak moorlands slowly pass by between the beating windscreen wipers. The rain shrinks the wide landscape, closing round us

The canyon, with its eponymous yellow stone wall, is spectacular but the view point is swarming with mosquitos which seem to take a fancy to me.

There is snow on the trail. At first they are small drifts and no obstacle but it is strange to feel so hot under such a blazing sun and yet be negotiating snow

The options for eggs is baffling: easy over, easy up etc and we take a guess. Stewart orders easy up and fortunately it's what he wanted, a plain fried egg.

Finding ice in the scorching desert and the realisation that the diversity of American languages is hidden by the predominance of English.

The road becomes very rough, a potted, rutted track, steep and twisting. What we had estimated was more than enough fuel is disappearing rapidly.

Travels through India by bus, train and plane, 1981

We went into a small house off a backstreet and up a narrow, steep flight of stone steps. A rope had been stapled to the wall as a handrail.

I bought "Entrostrep Capsules". I didn't chose them myself. The pharmacist, at least I hoped he was, matched them to my description of the symptoms.

Two weeks ago I would only drink bottled water and now I was trying exotic juice from a dirty glass.

For tea we had enormous American style pizzas then went for a final visit to a pie shop for pie and coffee. Our last evening in Kathmandu was drawing to a close

In one village square an old man was at pains to point out the erotic carvings around the eaves of a central, prominent building.

The Budhist temple, Swayambhunath Stupa, known as the Monkey Temple, sits at the top of a hill overlooking Kathmandu. I wish I'd known more about it at the time

Buying airline tickets, getting shoes mended, finding a bank, shopping and taking photographs. Our first full day in Kathmandu.

From the railway bridge we could see into the town. It was flooded but life went on apparently as usual all around as though the flood wasn't there.

He said this was the very slow train, the Jannata train. It would stop everywhere and take more than five hours. He said I should have waited for the express.

The Taj Mahal: peaceful, quiet, smart, clean and stunningly beautiful with its white marble, carvings and jewelled inlays. I'm here at last.

Akbar the Great, 3rd emperor of the Mogul dynasty began building his mausoleum before his death but died before it was finished.

Via the luxury of Dubai airport to the unwelcoming, dirty and intimidating transit facilities in Karachi, I arrive at Delhi airport just as it is getting light

A cold day in Aleppo starts with a visit to the impregnable looking citadel which stands on a hill at the centre of the city.

Ebla: My fingers are almost too cold to use the camera, but this place is famous. I'm not likely to visit again soon so I must get a photograph!

On the road from Damascus to Palmyra I learn that Syrians are self sufficient in phosphate fertiliser.

I realise I don't know much about Syria and can't reconcile what the guide is saying with my pre-conceived ideas. I am lost between two sets of propaganda.

Our guide is very keen to tell us how well educated the people are and how they have all worked very hard to build their country which has no oil!