Travelling Through... London, the World and Life

PHIL HUNTER is an artist and a qualified electrical engineer. He went to Art School to study Graphic Design although his professional life took him sideways into Electrical Lighting Design at a creatively exciting time in the development of professional lighting at rock concerts, as well as other projects. Phil has always continued with painting enjoying the mediums of oils and acrylic. His recent...

ALAN MARSH has had a career as a commercial photographer since the late 1970's. From a young age, Alan was entranced by the chemical techniques involved with photography which was then considered one of the science study options at his school in Dover. Having completed a degree at Medway College of Design, Alan spent some time working abroad photographing hotels and seeing parts of the world from...

NAADU ASHUN is of mixed heritage and she is proud to have created a brand of bags and accessories that reflect both her Ghanaian and British heritage. A Bag Less Ordinary collections bring together Ankara west African fabrics with Liberty or William Morris prints to create beautifully handcrafted accessories and gifts. In this podcast interview recorded under a bright November sky in Brompton Ceme...

CHRIS BECKETT was born in the UK and during his early childhood was brought up in Ethiopia. Ever since, he has had an ongoing cultural relationship with the country and its people through poetry. This year, Chris has published a book of poems reflecting his childhood and his perceptions of the country at this young age entitled Tenderfoot. He has also, in collaboration with exiled journalist and p...

STEPHEN MARRIOTT is an author, a traveller, public speaker and an investment analyst. He strives to be independent and believes in cultivating several life skills because the world around us is changing and evolving and it is important to have a few strings to your bow.   Stephen is currently writing the third and final book in his Reluctant Pilgrim Series of books which follows the life of Diego...

Renee Rilexie is an artist at Make Space Studios in Waterloo, London SE1. Her art is influenced by her specific type of synesthesia. During the London 2020 lockdown period Renee pulled out a children's book she had written many years previously and decided now was the time to publish it, and in this process she has also decided to animate it. This is the story behind the creation of The Advenuture...

ADAM WELLS is a transitional life coach. He has walked the Camino de Santiago twice as well as other routes leading to Santiago de Compestella. He gave up a consultancy job in the city to start up his own business based on his own skills, experiences and knowledge of life's transitions to finding one's true path. This can take many years and Adam's aim is to set you on that path through one-to-one...

Esra Kizir Gokcen was born, raised and indeed had begun raising her own family in Istanbul, Turkey. She studied graphic design in Istanbul and taught art to pupils in a small studio. However life changed dramatically for Esra following the sudden and unexpected death of her husband, and four years ago she took the courageous decision to bring her children to London to begin a new life chapter for...

ROKA set up her flower business RokaBringsFlowers only a few months ago just as the lockdown was lifting in London. It is a project entirely self-powered by Roka and her bicycle. She buys her flowers from New Covent Garden Market, and also creates small posies of wild flowers from Roots and Shoots - £1.00 of every bunch sold goes to the charity. . Roka suffers from a form of Obsessive Compulsive D...

Hello my lovely podcast listeners, In this podcast episode it's just me summing up on the series so far, what some of my podcast guests have been doing since I chatted with them, and news on what's coming up next in the podcast series starting in September. It's been an amazing first season of podcasting with huge thanks to my podcasts guests for giving up their valuable time to talk to me, and a...

KATE FRAME is Head of Conservation Care and Collections at Historic Royal Palaces in London. Kate was born in Canada and is one of seven children. Her father had a career in mining which took the family to many unique places in the world during the 1960s and 1970s. She was a conservation student in London, and worked in Toronto, Canada before moving to London in the late 1990s.   THIS IS KATE’S UN...

RITA ABREU is a photographer, a writer and a multilingual tour guide in the UK. She was born and brought up in Portugal and from an early age she has been fascinated by maps and travel. After University, Rita moved to Lisbon, then to Ireland and finally to London, and through her work as a tour guide she has travelled extensively throughout the UK and abroad. Although Rita moved out of London for...

RILEXIE RENEE is an artist and a children’s writer. Her artwork is inspired by her brain’s interpretation of music into seeing colours. This is now known as synesthesia. Renee’s sensitivity to sound and sound frequencies has had a huge impact on her life since she was a child. Renee is a Guyanese Amerindian whose family moved to New York as a result of unsettled times and conflict in Guyana during...

ANDY GEORGE said, "The only thing I knew about life was that I didn’t want to live in London." It's now 2020 and he has followed his dream to work in the arts and theatre world, and is currently well entrenched in London as one of the founding directors of the successful Vault Festival. This is a winter theatre festival aiming "to bring colour and a bit of joy to the world" during the drab London...

AMANDA (known as AJ) CULLEN is from a small town near Buffalo, USA. While studying in Edinburgh, she fell in love with an Englishman. Four years of visa restrictions and complications, she is now living, working and married in London. This is a story of a small town millennial girl leaving that world behind her, travelling to the East and China, finding happiness and a whole load of new challenges...

STEPHANIE MAIR is an accordionist and singer with her band Oh la la! They gig across the UK and play regularly at Brasserie Zedel in Piccadilly, London. Stephanie's show name is Fifi La Mer and she plays solo as well as in a duo. You may have met her playing French songs and pavement strolling in Lower Marsh on Bastile Day. She joined us at Travelling Through after a gig on our last day as a books...

AUSTIN CAFFREY was a regular at Travelling Through. He ran the very popular Philosophy Café which attracted young and old from all over London many of whom were new to London and came from all parts of the world. Austin was born in Ireland but grew up in London. He played keyboard in a punk band and enjoyed the London music scene of the 70s. He qualified within the Institute of Financial Services....

ABIGAIL CHAPMAN is Canadian-Mexican and was brought up in the borderlands of Mexico. She joined Travelling Through in 2014 in its infancy as a barista and book sales assistant and is now an Assistant Librarian in the City of London while completing her Masters in Library Science. She was our star latte artist and along with many customers and friends, she supported me in the final weeks and hours...

MER (MERCEDES) DOMENECH is a travel blogger (Travel with Mer) and since lockdown she has been documenting her state of mind in a weekly post These 4 Walls. Prior to COVID-19 restrictions, Mer was walking The London Loop to raise money for the charity REFUGE. As lockdown restrictions ease, Mer will be back out there completing the 250km walk in weekly stages. Mer is from Mallorca and has been in th...

JANA (JANAGAN) ALAGARAJAH was born in Sri Lanka to Tamil parents. In the 1990s they fled to London on an emergency visa from Amnesty International. Jana was 3 years old. He grew up in the UK and is a doctor of medicine. In 2016 he cycled the Pacific Coast from Vancouver to Tijuana with an urn and a pannier full of tea. He raised over £3,000 for the Save The Children’s Child Refugee Crisis Appeal a...

CORRY KLEIN was born in Chicago. She is a relocation and career coach. Corry has also had a career in the international financial sector. She has travelled widely and has lived in Brazil, Hong Kong and Lausanne where her love of skiing could be indulged because of her flexible working schedule. London has been her home for two distinct periods in her life. Corry became a regular customer to the Tr...

MARISKA MARTINA is a musician, singer and songwriter as well as a classically trained cellist AND she composed our podcast intro/outro jingle! Mariska is Dutch-Peruvian. She came to London from Holland under a heavy cloud of mental health struggles in her early twenties. Five years on, Mariska feels London is home and she is steadily carving out a career for herself as a singer and musician. She h...

STEPHEN HOLDER is an artist and also a Tai Chi and Qigong instructor. Steve has established his own branch of the Mei Quan Academy in Waterloo SE1. It has become one of the many popular and successful branches operating in London. During this unprecedented lockdown period, the Academy has moved quickly and creatively to bring all its classes live online, and while benefiting both students and inst...

JINI REDDY is a journalist, travel features writer and author. Her most recent book Wanderland has been inspired by her fascination with how indigenous people she met on her world travels seemed to have such a connection with the natural world, a relationship which was reciprocal and deeply spiritual. In our conversation, Jini touches on some of the places she visited while on her journey across t...

CALVIN NILES is all about living in the present and being on his “A” game. He is the mastermind behind the project start-up Discover TOME , a tool to encourage down time from your tech, so as to find some balance in what is a digitally dependent world. Calvin also works freelance as an Empowerment Coach and consultant for corporates, individuals and charities. He moved to London from Barbados when...