Category Archives: Travel
Behind the scenes of Art of Persia – episode 2
We’ve had such amazing audience praise and enthusiasm for Episode 1 so I thought I’d give some more insights and answer a question. A number of viewers asked why we described the Cyrus Cylinder -with its declaration of tolerance for … Continue reading
What made America great? On the trail of Laura Ingalls Wilder
It was the 2008 crash that somehow inspired me to finally read the Little House on the Prairie books. I was clearly craving comfort, safety, a kind of nostalgia for a vaguely remembered 70s girlhood in which I half watched … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Children, Culture, Film, History, Politics, Radio, Travel, Uncategorized
Tagged almanzo wilder, ayn rand, BBC America, BBC Sunday Feature, dean butler, laura ingalls wilder, mansfield missouri, Radio 3, rose wilder lane, the fountainhead, USA
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Shopping and Voting: What Hong Kong’s identity crisis reveals about the state of Britain
All photos copyright Samira Ahmed. No re-use permitted. This column first appeared in The Big Issue Magazine. Available from street vendors or take out a subscription here. I’m standing on the high peak of the Dragon’s Back trail, under a … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Culture, Politics, Travel, Uncategorized
Tagged bruce lee, culture, hong kong, politics, UKIP
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The White North Has Thy Bones: Ice stations, submarines & the woman who swam the North West Passage
Here’s a programme to listen to huddled by the fire, like Jane Eyre with her book of polar wildlife as the wind howls outside. Producer Kevin Dawson came up with the idea of our latest Something Understood programme about the … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Environment, History, Music, Radio, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Travel, Uncategorized
Tagged arctic, david arnold, Frankenstein, from russia with love, ice station zebra, inuit, James Taylor, jane eyre, jude law, Kursk submarine, lynne cox, north west passage, sir john franklin, Something Understood, submarines
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Electric cars, the tinned sardine aquarium & the stink of Hearst Castle – an eco-trip through John Steinbeck’s California
This column first appeared in The Big Issue magazine. Journalism worth paying for. A giant eye in an inky mass rose up of the water and beheld me. It was a humpback whale calf surfacing unexpectedly close to the prow … Continue reading
On The Road with Buddha: The Prince Who Walked Out of His Fairy Tale
UPDATED SEPT 2 What happens when a prince walks away from his kingdom? I love the symbolism and and dream like metaphors of fairy stories. So a “real life” one is all the more intriguing. I’d been fascinated with the … Continue reading
Posted in Books, History, Music, Religion, Travel
Tagged Ashoka, BBC, Buddha, David Yip, Herman Hesse, Hinduism, Hollywood, India, Jack Kerouac, literature, Prince Siddartha, Something Understood
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The power of the crowd: From John Wesley & James Baldwin to the crime busting commuters of Waterloo station
Crime busting commuters & the mysterious power of crowds at Waterloo Station from Samira Ahmed on Vimeo. When producer Caroline Hughes suggested we make a Something Understood programme for Radio 4 about the power of crowds I was a little … Continue reading
Posted in Radio, Religion, Travel
Tagged Hare Krishna, James Baldwin, John Wesley, Something Understood, Stephen Reicher, Waterloo station
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Concorde: How a dead end can be a glorious high point of innovation
1976 Paris-Rio First commercial Concorde flight to Brazil Photo: Jean-Claude Deutsch Paris Match I chose Concorde out of a 100 Great British Innovations for a National Museum project to mark National Science and Engineering Week. You can vote for it … Continue reading
Posted in Business/Economics, Design, Science, Travel
Tagged 70s, Concorde, Engineering, FTW
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Don’t Go There, Lady
I wrote to journalist and future doctor Lucy Mathen as a child when she presented Newsround. More than 30 years later we met. I wrote a feature about it for The Guardian. And as a result of learning about how … Continue reading
Posted in Children, journalism, Politics, Radio, Science, Travel, Uncategorized, War
Tagged books, charity, culture, India, journalism, Lucy Mathen, medicine, politics
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8 Days in Seoul with Images. India’s Dream City?
I was nagged by one question throughout my recent holiday to Seoul. Why does South Korea remind me so much of India? But of an India without slums, heavy pollution, child poverty and endemic corruption? This is a personal write … Continue reading
