Blog posts tagged "Benjamin Zephaniah"

February 2, 2009 4:47 pm No Comments

Once in a while the gods deal you an unexpected hand. I am attempting the apparently Latin-American impossible: Colombia to London inside 24 hrs. The signs are not good. An hour and a half to go to take-off, and no-one is at check-in either side of the desk. Then I see why. The previous flight [...]

February 1, 2009 6:33 pm No Comments

A great cloud of dust, a whoosh of excitable policemen, and a motorcade comes to a gravel-scattering halt outside my hotel here in Cartagena, in Colombia. The most awaited guest is arrived. Salman Rushdie ain’t pleased. The one condition on which he had come here was: no security, no motorcades. He was fuming as he [...]

January 30, 2009 10:28 am No Comments

It’s hot, humid and yet a sea breeze blows down the narrow streets to flutter the table cloths of the pavement cafes. Cartagena is on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Yellow, pink, white, blue houses compete for a ringside seat in this packed town. It’s a natural enough place to have a book festival. There [...]