I did a lot of travel writing in the 90s, mainly for the Independent and the Telegraph, and would go to China or India or Egypt or South Africa for a month and write a couple of travel articles and other stories as well. I have written for the Sunday Times Magazine, the Times, the Financial Times, the Guardian, Fortune Magazine, Prospect, Harpers Bazaar and other publications.
I was a regular contributor to the arts and leisure page of the Wall Street Journal and the Wall Street Journal Europe, covering arts, leisure and fashion, from 1991 to 2001.
In recent years I’ve been focussing on fiction. But I’ve kept up my travel and other writing with pieces for the Financial Times, Independent, Mail, Telegraph, Sunday Times Magazine and Spectator and other publications including BBC World Histories Magazine.
I write regular book reviews for the Literary Review and the TLS.
I also do radio and podcasts and occasionally appear on TV and radio to comment on Japanese current events, such as during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Travel and Other Writing
Silk Roads exhibition
First published in Historia Magazine on 29 November, 2024
There’s something irresistibly romantic about the Silk Roads. The very name conjures up images of caravans of camels, piled high with baggage, wending their way across desert and steppes. It makes you want to pack your bags and set off immediately.
The Silk Roads exhibition at the British Museum aims to recreate some of that allure. Mountains soar and deserts dotted with oases ripple on screens around the walls. The hall is bedecked with evocative place names, some familiar – Dunhuang, Bukhara, Samarkand – some less so. Birka, for a start, was new to me. (It’s a Viking city in Sweden.)
The curators have cast their net wide. The exhibition is all about multi-culturalism, not the Silk Road but the Silk Roads, a network of arteries criss-crossing the Eurasian continent from East to West and back again and stretching into Africa. […]
How claims of cultural appropriation scuppered an acclaimed new ballet
First published in The Spectator UK on 7 September, 2024
On 14 March 2020 I was at Leeds Grand Theatre for the première of Northern Ballet’s Geisha. The curtains swung open on fishermen flinging out their nets, geisha, samurai, 19th-century Japanese village folk, followed by the sudden appearance of American sailors. It was in essence a Japanese Giselle: the tale of a geisha, spurned by her American lover, who dies of grief, and whose restless spirit returns from the grave.
It was a unique production. Many of the dancers at Northern Ballet are Japanese, Chinese or Korean and this was an east Asian story. The ballet was created by the young choreographer Kenneth Tindall with music by Alexandra Harwood (who created the music for the new All Creatures Great and Small) and a spectacular scenario by Gwyneth Hughes (Mr Bates vs The Post Office). I was the historical consultant. As a Japan specialist it was my job to make sure the production was as authentic and respectful of Japanese customs and traditions as possible. I gave talks to the dancers about geisha and the historical background. I made suggestions and demonstrations on how to bow and carry oneself, Japanese-style. I provided details about Japanese ghosts, festivals and music. […]
My encounters with the Mayans
First published in The Spectator US on 6 August, 2022
“I met a traveler from an antique land…” Visiting the Mayan ruins in Yucatán, it’s hard not to think of Shelley’s immortal “Ozymandias.” Proud though it once was, little remains of that extraordinary civilization.
I began my encounter with the Maya at Chichen Itza. Gazing up at the spectacular faceted pyramid which dominates the complex, I tried to imagine myself back a thousand years, negotiating the precipitous staircase that leads straight up the sheer face to the chamber at the top.
I wondered at the ballpark, as big as a football field, and the domed observatory and labyrinthine temples and studied the intricate carvings which scrolled across walls and pillars and stelae. There were figures of warriors and skulls, of jaguars and eagles with exuberant feathers, clutching human hearts in their massive claws. The motif of death was inescapable. […]
samurai nights in aizu
First published in The Spectator US on 22 August, 2021
I started my visit to Japan’s north country deep in the mountains, in hot water in a bath the size of a swimming pool. Quietly simmering, I was intrigued to notice that the glass which formed the outside wall was not misted up, though the water was steaming. Through the darkness I could make out trees, bushes and the glint of the lake below. I waded over and reached out my hand, only to discover that there was no wall. One side of the bath was entirely open to the air. […]
The IOC and government in Tokyo have failed to bully Japan’s people into submission
First published in Prospect on 5 June, 2021
The Olympic torch set off on 25th March from Fukushima for its 121-day journey through Japan’s 47 prefectures, and will be carried by 10,000 runners before it reaches its Tokyo destination. But there’s so much disaffection around these games that when it passed through one neighbourhood in Nara, a resident reported, nobody watched. Indeed, as the weeks tick down to the intended opening on 23rd July, no one is sure whether they will proceed. […]
Under the skin of Seville
First published in The Spectator US on 10 April, 2021
It was night when I arrived in Seville. A taxi took me through a maze of winding backstreets then came to an abrupt halt at the head of a pedestrian-only lane. ‘You’ll have to walk from here,’ said the driver.
Uncertainly I dragged my suitcase down one dark alley after another, then suddenly came out onto a plaza lined with orange trees. Soaring above me, spotlit against the black sky, was the cathedral steeple. It was a breathtaking sight with its delicately latticed walls of golden stone, so tall I had to tip my head back to see the spire at the top. The cathedral stretched beside it, filling an entire block. […]
On the road to Mandalay
First published in The Spectator US on 3 December, 2020
Traveling in Myanmar, it’s hard not to think of Rudyard Kipling’s immortal lines: ‘On the road to Mandalay,/ Where the flying fishes play.’
These days both Kipling and Myanmar (or Burma, as we still think of it) are out of favor. The mere mention of a visit elicits raised eyebrows and hisses of disbelief, though it seems that travelers can visit China, which is just as repressive, with impunity. But despite the disapproval, Myanmar retains its allure. Even the names are magical. Who wouldn’t want to take the road to Mandalay or sail the Irrawaddy? […]
Flavors of the past: Visiting Uzbekistan is a huge adventure
First published in The Spectator US on 8 July, 2020
Visiting Uzbekistan is a huge adventure. It’s the heart of Central Asia and the old Silk Road, a land of deserts and oases where you can still feel as if you’re stepping back in time. But it’s also unexpectedly safe, easy, inexpensive and welcoming. At the airport, even the immigration officials were smiling. As the young man I sat next to on Tashkent’s splendid Metro told me in hesitant English: ‘We have a new president now. Things are much better. He wants foreign tourists to come.’ […]
Pull up a seat and sample Japan’s gift to the world: How to find the best sushi restaurants
First published in The Mail on Sunday on 16 December, 2019
Most Japanese would not dream of making sushi at home. It’s something you eat in restaurants or send out for. It has a mystique.
I am a Japanese food specialist. I’ve written three Japanese cook books and presented a BBC2 series on Japanese cooking.
I was also a Good Food Guide inspector of Japanese restaurants in England for many years. Here’s my guide to finding a good sushi restaurant in Japan. […]
Uzbekistan: where east meets west and past meets present
First published in The Spectator UK on 14 December, 2019
You realise what a rarity western tourists are when the locals ask to take selfies with you. I was standing under the mammoth ramparts of the Ark, Bukhara’s great palace fortress, when two women came up and asked if they could have their picture taken with me. One was dressed Uzbek-style in a colourful dress and matching trousers, with a scarf knotted around her head; the other in a western blouse and trousers. We lined up, beaming, in front of a haughty two-humped camel.[…]
Up to your neck in the real Japan: The secrets of enjoying onsen baths
First published in The Mail on Sunday on 1 December, 2019
Going to a hot spring resort is the Japanese equivalent of heading to the seaside. Japan is volcanic, which means that mineral-rich water bubbles up here and there through fissures in the earth.
This water is reputed to heal all manner of ailments, from rheumatism and arthritis to skin diseases. As a result, the country is full of hot spring towns.
Resort towns are full of hotels, from old inns to huge, luxurious spa resorts. The baths vary in size – some fit only five or six people, or they can be huge, like the 1,000-person bath in Shimoda. […]
Japan’s reluctant princess, Empress Masako
First published in The Spectator on 9 May, 2019
It’s been a big couple of weeks for royal events. On this side of the world, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor arrived. On the other, Emperor Naruhito’s accession to the chrysanthemum throne of Japan marked the beginning of a new era. All eyes however have been on the new Empress Masako, who has kept largely out of public view for many years. So who is Japan’s enigmatic new Empress?
A month after marrying Crown Prince Naruhito in 1993, Princess Masako was seated at a state banquet between Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin. She chatted with Clinton in English, Yeltsin in Russian, and greeted Francois Mitterrand in French. She seemed like a breath of fresh air blowing through the staid old imperial palace. People wondered if the arrival of this western-educated young woman into the imperial family would bring about a change in the position of Japanese women. […]
Taiwan’s Grand Hotel makes Trump Tower look drab: Inside the gold-trimmed palace which hosts stars and national leaders
First published in The Mail on Sunday on 25 March, 2017
Donald Trump threatened to cause a diplomatic rift with China when he received a phone call from Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen shortly after his election victory.
And if the new US President went a step further and decided to visit the island – which China claims as its own territory – he would find a sultry, welcoming place.
For a start it has the perfect place for him to stay – the Grand Hotel in the capital Taipei is even more ostentatious than the President’s own Trump Tower. […]
Inside the secret world of the geisha with novelist Lesley Downer
First published in The Express on 1 December, 2016
From my balcony I’d see maiko – trainee geisha – clopping by, chattering and laughing, their white-painted faces glowing in the darkness. Sometimes I’d see them in daytime in their gorgeously coloured kimonos with long swinging sleeves, their lips painted brilliant red but it seemed impossible to meet them.
I had been fascinated by geisha ever since I first went to Japan in 1978. Until very recently men and women lived fairly separate lives. I was amazed to discover that until the mid-19th century the shogun (military ruler) had a harem of 3,000 women so secret that almost nothing was known about it. That inspired me to imagine what life there might have been like. This was the inspiration for my new novel, The Shogun’s Queen. […]
Author Lesley Downer on the Choshu Five who settled in Chalk Farm
First published in Ham & High on 8 November, 2016
On one of my first days in Japan, I was asleep on the seventh floor of the Nagaragawa Hotel in Gifu when my bed started rocking alarmingly. It was my first earthquake, though I soon became blasé about such minor tremors.
I was there to teach English at a women’s university. I stood out so much in this nondescript city of half a million people that when someone I’d met turned up at Gifu Station and asked for “the foreign woman teaching English”, they sent him straight to my university.
It was lonely at first but as I absorbed myself in Japanese culture I began to fall in love with the place. I bore in mind the tale of the Choshu Five. They’d smuggled themselves to London when leaving Japan was punishable by death and must have suffered far greater culture shock than I ever did. […]
Desert Island Books: Lesley Downer
First published in Historia on 8 November, 2016
If I were stranded on a desert island I’d want to have five enormously long books, all worth reading, so gripping that I’d stop worrying about whether I’d be rescued, books that would cheer me up if I felt depressed about being stranded and that I’d want to read again and again.
I’ve often thought that when I had lots of leisure time I would read Proust, but on a desert island I don’t think I’d want to read about a man lying in bed eating madeleines, so – perhaps mistakenly – I’d leave that one behind. […]
Top 10 unexpected things I discovered in Japan
First published in Female First on 2 November, 2016
Japan is a great place to be a woman. It’s one of the safest places on earth. I was once walking down a dark alley in Tokyo well after midnight and decided to test out this theory. There was a gang of menacing-looking Japanese bikers blocking my path. Instead of crossing the road I took a deep breath and cut straight through the middle of them. To my relief and joy they paid me not the slightest attention. […]
How Jordan is trying to reassure tourists
First published in The Independent on 4 September, 2015
“We are in the eye of the storm,” says Sami, the moustachioed owner of a tiny café perched on the edge of a precipitous canyon. “Israel, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia – they’re all around us. But here is calm.” He gestures around the spectacular ravine in front of us. We’ve spent all day zig-zagging down one side and up the other. “Is Jordan not calm and peaceful?” I have to agree. “But tourists no longer come,” he adds gloomily. “They’re afraid. Tourist industry is in trouble. We can’t make ends meet.” […]