What do you want from a pop star? Personally, I don’t want anything too ambitious. I want bright melodic hooks that edge into melancholy, spiky basslines that drill into my brain, and uncomplicated lyrics that speak frankly of love and …
Welcome to Albania’s Little London
I’m standing near the foot of a mountain that looms over Has in north-eastern Albania, staring at a bright red phone box that appears to have been transported here from the streets of Nineties London. To one side, a row …
Why migrants are fleeing Albania
It’s a slow Sunday in Kukës, Northern Albania and I am trying to convince 40-year-old Bedri in Liverpool House, a local bar, that coming to England might not be such a good idea. “If I had €3,000, I would buy …
The gangs of Calais
Everything about Calais is grey. The sky is grey, the roads are grey, the mesh fences with their tangles of razor wire are grey. Even the bottle of water I’m drinking appears, in the coastal gloom, to be grey. Calais …