Inspiring Travel Writing from Jonathan Begg
Jonathan Begg is an experienced journalist, editor, fiction writer and advertising man, with a strong speciality in travel. Born in 1947, he won a major scholarship to Oundle, and saw active service as a rifleman in Mad Mitch's battalion in the re-capture of Aden Crater, before launching his writing career on the Edinburgh Tatler and Glasgow Illustrated.
In London, he spent ten years in advertising agencies, writing campaigns for Whitbread, R.White's, Scholl, Crittall and Bayer, before going freelance in 1981. He was Deputy Editor of the travel quarterly Going Places 1987-93, and has contributed to many other publications including Travelscope, Campaign, Woman's Realm, The Independent on Sunday and Times Literary Supplement. He is regularly involved in promotional work for tour operators, airlines, hotel groups and national tourist boards.
Mr Begg lives in Queensway, Bayswater, probably the most multi-national street in the world.
In London, he spent ten years in advertising agencies, writing campaigns for Whitbread, R.White's, Scholl, Crittall and Bayer, before going freelance in 1981. He was Deputy Editor of the travel quarterly Going Places 1987-93, and has contributed to many other publications including Travelscope, Campaign, Woman's Realm, The Independent on Sunday and Times Literary Supplement. He is regularly involved in promotional work for tour operators, airlines, hotel groups and national tourist boards.
Mr Begg lives in Queensway, Bayswater, probably the most multi-national street in the world.
Articles by Jonathan Begg
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One Foot in the Arctic
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Jonathan Begg
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Iceland
The last house in the street has something odd about it. No window-panes and rather a lot of black dust, like a coal-hole. A peep indoors reveals nothing less than the side of a volcano, slicing through the building at 45 degrees. This was...
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Thailand’s Teak Palace
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Jonathan Begg
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Thailand
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Bangkok Region
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Bangkok
It was built for women only. It boasted the first light-bulb in Thailand, as well as the first indoor plumbing. And a hundred years on, these three storeys of immortal splendour in rare golden teak are held together by nothing more than an elegant...
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Chicago’s Cultural Crosswinds
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Jonathan Begg
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United States
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Illinois
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Chicago
The tallest building on earth is always there, wherever you look. Telescopic in design, its square shoulders fall away at certain points, relieving the monotony of its huge black surface. A temple to the mail-order business that once revolutionized...
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A Deep Breath of Africa
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Jonathan Begg
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Spain
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Castilla-Leon
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Segovia
It is a small but favourable sign that tourist flights from Lusaka to Livingstone are now allowed to fly low over Zimbabwe to give a better view of the Victoria Falls. The classic picture of this wide curtain of water, surely the best-known view in...
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Namibia Unreal
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Jonathan Begg
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Namibia
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Etosha National Park Region
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Etosha National Park
The lone springbok was staring calmly at the fastest creature on earth, and no more than a hundred yards of bush separated them. Like all spectators, we looked on with divided feelings, silently longing for the combat we might later lament. But it...
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Before You Die: Blue, Blue Planet
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Jonathan Begg
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Bolivia
Lakes never look as blue as they should - except when you escape pollution by climbing to 12,000 ft (Lake Titicaca) or viewing Oregon’s Crater Lake, formed from rainwater alone.
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South from Seattle
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Jonathan Begg
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United States
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Washington State
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Seattle
To the Americans for whom it was chiefly made, the opening scene of Full Disclosure, showing Donald Sutherland and other commuters stepping off the ferry to work, required no giveaway title-frame announcing ‘Seattle’. Nothing pinpoints the location...
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Mockingbird Pie
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Jonathan Begg
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United States
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Tennessee
Mention the South and you get two stock reactions. A warm, spreading smile at the thought of all those Mississippi gamblers and their Dixie belles, taking mint juleps on timeless verandas. Or a slow, solemn nod, as though you have just mentioned...
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Turkeys Silken Centre
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Jonathan Begg
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Turkey
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Mediterranean Coast
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Antalya
The panoramic Altintepe restaurant perched in solitary splendour above Kayseri is a good enough place to take stock. At three thousand feet, you are only a quarter of the way up to the great volcano whose rose-pink ash clouds have covered this...
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Lovely and Lost in Thailand
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Jonathan Begg
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Thailand
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The North
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Mekong Valley
Thailand’s Mekong Valley is one of the few tourist zones left where no English is spoken, all signs are written in a picturesque alphabet not our own, postcards are nowhere to be found, and most people have never heard of coffee, even when you ask...