Harry Pearson

Wherever you are in Newcastle, even in its pulsating, partying heart, you are never far from the windblown emptiness of a North Sea beach. A 45-minute drive to the north brings you to sweeping stretches of white sand, backed by rolling dunes speckled with orchids, clifftop castles and an atmosphere of epic grandeur that has attracted filmmakers such as Roman Polanski and Ridley Scott. In nearby Tyne and Wear the beaches have more traditional British seaside charms, epitomised by the glowing A...

Oman is a country of great variety. In fact, historically, it's a variety of countries. It was called 'Muscat and Oman' until the accession of Sultan Qaboos bin Said in 1970, and even that double barrel was a wishful attempt to impose homogeneity on a collection of mutually hostile indigenous tribes and a multitude of incomers: merchants from Persia and the Indian subcontinent; descendants of slaves from Somalia (when James Morris visited Oman in 1955 the Sultan, Qaboos's father, still kept a...

ROADTRIP TO SUR
From Muscat eastward towards Sur is a 150-mile journey, much of it on dirt roads, past a succession of tiny fishing villages (each one has watchtowers and deserted white beaches) and the ruins of the ancient city of Qalhāt, of which all that is left standing is a pretty, roofless structure of honey-coloured stone said to be the tomb of a female saint, or maybe a princess of Hormuz. To the south tower purple mountains. Stop and peer over the low cliffs and you may see infant sh...

‘The temperature is half a dozen degrees below zero; moisture freezes in the air and falls down on us like a glitter shower....’ The USA’s 49th state can be cold, but there are plenty of places to wrap up warm. Travelling from Anchorage out to historic fur-trapper towns and a Russian trading post, Pearson encounters frozen rivers and vintage planes, log cabins and wild salmon, and a cast of gritty but welcoming local characters. He’s also in time to witness the start of the Iditarod, the worl...

The romance and history of England's cobbled streets

Bike racing is in the air in Flanders, as unavoidable as the rain, as ubiquitous as pralines. A look at the rich history of Flemish cycling.

The history and uses of weathervanes

A walk through an area once populated by murderous clans leading to a cosy pub in rural Northumberland

Bicycle Racing and Modern Art

Controverisal Italian artists Piero Manzoni made many of his best known works in a shirt factory in rural Denmark.

The Esk Valley line transports pilgrims to a Yorkshire town made famous by its crop of giant gooseberries

Travelling through Alaska in March.

The locomotive roared through European art for more than a century, inspiring English Romantics, French Impressionists, Italian Futurists and Belgian Surrealists. Harry Pearson tracks its epic journey
In the autumn of 1825, a wheezing, panting, cast-iron contraption designed by George and Robert Stephenson chugged out of the County Durham town of Shildon in the north of England. Named Locomotion No 1, the steam engine was hauling 20 coal wagons and an experimental passenger coach containing c...

In Gregory Sallust, British author Dennis Wheatley created the world’s first womanizing playboy spy. But this prototype for 007 had dark and criminal roots.