About my work

I write about people. And places. And what places mean to people.

My newest book Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture (Saqi Books, 2024), co-edited with Palestinian friends Mahmoud Muna, Juliette Touma and Jayyab Abusafia, gathers almost a hundred accounts of Gazan lives and stories from before and during Israel’s ongoing assault, by Gaza’s writers and artists, but also its doctors and shopkeepers, its farmers and students and office workers. ‘A most significant collection, one that frightens, awes and inspires,’ said Philippe Sands. Suad Amiry called it ‘essential reading’ and Fatima Bhutto said: ‘Daybreak in Gaza must be shared with the world.’

My previous book Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City (Profile Books and Other Press, 2022) reassesses histories and outlooks on Jerusalem as told through stories of the communities that live – and have lived – inside the city’s walls. Jonathan Dimbleby called it “original and illuminating” and Raja Shehadeh said it “reveals the Old City of Jerusalem better than any other book written about the city.” It was the Observer‘s ‘Book of the Week’ and a ‘Book of the Year’ in the Daily Telegraph, Geographical magazine and elsewhere.

I also present and produce documentaries for BBC radio, including for Radio 4’s environment strand Costing The Earth and the World Service history slot Witness, and have reported many times from around the world for the BBC’s From Our Own Correspondent. My documentary from the Falklands on the tension between minefield clearance and environmental conservation was chosen for BBC Radio 4’s “Pick of the Week”, as was my documentary examining the history of political resistance as expressed by women of colour through poetry.

My book Quite Alone: Journalism from the Middle East 2008-2019 collects some of my travel, feature journalism and news reporting.

I’ve written and edited many guidebooks for the travel publisher Rough Guides, and have spoken at literary festivals and public events in Britain, the US and around the world, including for the Palestine Festival of Literature and at the Royal Geographical Society in London. Travel firm Cox & Kings asked me to lecture for “Art Tours of the Holy Land”, run by them for the Royal Academy of Arts, and I have devised and led various Middle East travel itineraries. In 2016 AITO shortlisted me for Travel Writer of the Year.