“I was moved beyond words. The train ride over the mountains from lake Titticaca to Cusco reminded me of Africa where I grew up; and 4 days walking on the Inca Trail, then more in the jungle, just magnificent - time, space, and splendour. Our planet is superb!”

“I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of a man is to live, not to exist.Jack London”

“Beyond the lake, over the mountains, the clouds were illuminated from within by a brilliant stutter of lightning, and in that split second Elizabeth and I were etched against the sky.”

“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark burn out in a brilliant blaze than it be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.”

“Tunnelling through the night, the trains passin a splendour of power, with a sound like thundershaking the orchards, wakingthe young from a dream, scattering like glassthe old mens' sleep, layinga black trail over the still bloom of the orchards;the trains go north with guns.Strange primitive piece of flesh, the heart laid quiethearing their cry pierce through its thin-walled caverecalls the forgotten tiger,and leaps awake in its old panic riot;and how shall mind be sober,since blood's red thread still binds us fast in history?Tiger, you walk through all our past and future,troubling the children's sleep'; layinga reeking trail across our dreams of orchards.Racing on iron errands, the trains go by,and over the white acres of our orchardshurl their wild summoning cry, their animal cry….the trains go north with guns.”

“I wanted my children to grow up where I grew up, to have proper roots in a culture as old and magnificent as Britain’s; to be citizens, with everything that implies, of a real country...”