Inspiring Travel Writing from Ben Mallalieu
Ben Mallalieu spent most of his adult life travelling, writing, painting, taking photographs and, when at home, spending very little time earning a living. In his mid 40s, he found himself with a growing family to support and eventually got his first proper job as a sub-editior on the Travel section of the Guardian, if you can call that a proper job. He now spends his time travelling, editing, designing pages, selecting photographs and writing articles that sometimes almost win awards.
Articles by Ben Mallalieu
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Fashion in the Bolivian Jungle
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Ben Mallalieu
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Bolivia
Colonel Percy Fawcett was an explorer of the old school, never happier than when eating his own boots or when one false step would spell certain death. He disappeared in 1925 searching in vain for a lost Atlantean city in the Matto Grosso of Brazil...
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A Three-Quarter Room with a View
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Ben Mallalieu
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Italy
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Tuscany
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Florence
A loggia is a room open on one side, or a terrace with a roof and three walls. Every home should have one. The Villa Mangiacane has two, but it is one of the better villas in Tuscany. The downstairs loggia is grander, some 90 feet long and 30 feet...
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Complications of Time
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Ben Mallalieu
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Greece
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Aegean Islands
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Tilos
The sea laps somewhat tunelessly, grating the pebbles, with a deeper bass note coming from a sea cave round the headland. Echoes never quite sound the same twice. Lethra beach is mostly grey pebble and dried seaweed-like woodshavings, the kind that...
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After the Centaurs Left
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Ben Mallalieu
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Greece
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Aegean Islands
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Pelion
The narrow Pelion peninsula rises in only half a dozen miles to 5,000ft, high enough for skiing in winter with a clear view of the sea. The villages on the western side are recognisably Greek, with tavernas along the sea edge between tall, white-...
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Before You Die: A Free Burma & a Free Tibet
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Ben Mallalieu
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Burma (Myanmar)
Spend time in a free democratic Burma and a free, independent Tibet.
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Before You Die: Paddle Through a Canadian Lake
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Ben Mallalieu
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Canada
Paddle slowly across a mirror-flat Canadian lake on an autumn evening with the trees on the bank and lines of migrating geese in the sky reflected in the water. Ben Mallalieu
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Before You Die: Ride in Central Asia
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Ben Mallalieu
Ride with a line of Central Asian horsemen across an empty plain under a sky heavy with snow.
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A Guide to Private Islands
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Ben Mallalieu
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British Virgin Islands
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Virgin Gorda Region
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Necker Island
Private islands are not for everyone. An English couple who bought an island off the west coast of Scotland spent their evenings gazing wistfully at the lights on the mainland. Most mornings the husband would say: “I’m just going out in the boat,”...
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Through Forests of Cedar, Along the Green River
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Ben Mallalieu
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Japan
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Chubu
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Takayama
The silver and blue bullet trains glide in and out of Nagoya station, as sinuous as electric eels. They are always on time, stopping for exactly 60 seconds to change passengers before speeding off at 250mph to Tokyo or Osaka. But they weren’t...
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Seeds on Stony Ground
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Ben Mallalieu
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United Kingdom
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South East England
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Dungeness
Only two hours drive from London, you can find yourself at the end of the world. Surely nowhere, even in Patagonia, is as bleak or as beautiful as Dungeness. Hieronymus Bosch would have liked it here. But until recently, it was regarded as an...