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SOFIA
is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Bulgaria. The children’s author Caroline Lawrence, best known for her series of mysteries set in the Roman Empire, recently returned from Sofia where she had travelled in search of vestiges of the ancient ways, in the streets, markets and churches of the modern city. She tells John McCarthy how after observing people and places she is able to incorporate them into her writing.

HAWAII
In many parts of the world traditional customs are often just below the surface of the twenty first century life. Travel writer Nick Maes, visited Hawaii where he found evidence of a new sense of the islands’ identity expressed in a resurgence of the local language. He shares his experience of how much of the indigenous culture remains in America’s 50th State.

PERU
Filmmaker and author Hugh Thomson talks about his trip to Qoyllurit’i, on the glaciers of the high Andes, to attend the Festival of the Snows, a Christian festival, based on much older pagan practices dating back to pre-Columbian times.