THIS summer, make sure you shine in gold, silver and sequins.

FROM the outside, Glasgow’s tallest hotel is as likely to be praised for its architecture as one of the city’s last remaining 1960s high rises.

IT’S –5°C when I arrive in Krakow’s medieval market square, the largest of its kind in Europe, dating back to the 13th century.

HERE’S a non-typical example of a conversation at Spectrum Towers.

I STILL have the T-shirt. Stretched, faded, full of holes; it is, if you can believe this, almost 23 years old.

JO MALONE. What do those two words mean?

A NEW dawn on Iona. The bright sun bounces off buoys and creels and shines like a benediction on skipper Davie Kirkpatrick’s beautiful wooden boat, Iolaire, Gaelic for eagle, as she leaves the harbour for Staffa.

THIS has been a long time coming. Four months, to be precise.

ONE of three hotels owned by the National Trust, Hartwell House, in the Vale of Aylesbury, was first mentioned in the Domesday Book as belonging to a natural son of William the Conqueror. But the stunning building that stands there now, with its Jacobean and Georgian aspects, dates from the early 17th century.

THE conservation message comes over loud and clear when visiting Kenya’s famous animals on safari.

HEAVY, ripe and alcoholic expressions of shiraz (or syrah) have given it an unfair reputation for brashness. While this generalisation was never completely true, the current popularity of cooler-climate versions has brought freshness, subtlety and balance more to the fore.

THERE are many things I like in restaurants, but the acronym BYOB is my second favourite – pipped only by the same letters on the door of a restaurant within 100 yards of a decent off-licence.

LEARNING to cook, no matter what level you’re at, is all about a few essential things. Whether you enjoy trying new recipes or ingredients, just love cooking for your family and friends or you’re training to be a chef, there are a few key things you need.

AFTER writing a novel based on his famous father, Scottish psychiatrist R D Laing, Adrian Laing says he would rather write about their relationship than go into therapy

RORY McEwen caused an international hullabaloo in the worlds of art and music. Now the Scot’s creative talents are recognised in exhibitions and a book that celebrate the legacy of this Renaissance man.

NOW a household name beyond his Danish homeland after appearing in political drama Borgen, Pilou Asbaek is swapping the corridors of power for the hardship of being held hostage by Somalian pirates

AS we entered this fine Georgian mansion, the young receptionist almost bounded from behind her desk in the hallway to give us the grand tour.

Through one door, white tablecloths and silver cutlery gleamed from a sunlit dining room packed with Sunday lunchers.

“THESE are the sexual sacks of the beaver,” says a prim lady who has just tricked us into breathing in the powerfully musky smell of a dark and shrivelled pair of what we had thought were some sort of exotic fruit. Poor old beaver.

I AM not one of those people who gets obsessed about their diet, but when I was feeling mildly under the weather the other day a restaurateur friend told me that it was down to a conflict between my blood group and my eating habits.

ALTHOUGH marketing may have made us regard Oz wines as a kind of single entity, any such notion is obviously daft. Some 2,500 miles separate Margaret River from Hunter Valley, for instance. But that said, premium wine spots do tend to be grouped together – and South Australia is one of the best illustrations.