Among the contributors

SIMON COURTAULD is usually to be found in his kitchen garden, the inspiration for his monthly Oldie column, or doing research in Spain, which resulted in his most recent book,

Footprints in Spain (Quartet, £11.99), on the historical links between our two countries. However, last spring he went north, by boat up the Norwegian coast, and suffered a baptism of ice when crossing the Arctic Circle, see page 10

MARK LAW, a former

Sunday Telegraph comment editor, is the proprietor of the gently cantankerous website, www.thesecondpost.com. Twin obsessions with judo and organised crime lured him into writing The Pyjama

Game, A Journey Into Judo and High Harm, a thriller set in the Alps. His fascination with military architecture has included a long-held desire to visit the Indian fortress of Daulatabad. He explains why on page 33

CLAUDIA MASSIE

writes about culture, travel and books. She is a regular art critic for the Spectator magazine as well as a practising artist. She lives with her family in Dunblane. On page 20, she writes about South-west France, to where she, her husband and three children decamped for three months and discovered grasshoppers, confit de canard and churches – and even found time for some schooling