Sweeney Todd de Paris: The Original Demon Barber

Could it be that the original Sweeney Todd was not actually from Victorian London, but from Medieval Paris? Legend has it that the City of Lights and Love had its very own demon barber during the 14th century. And in fact, Paris was quite possibly the first home of cannibalistic pastries from a murderous barber-butcher relationship.…

The X-Rated Paris Grave

In Paris’ city of the dead, where winding cobblestone pathways have their own street signs, graves look like small gothic houses and the likes of Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde have been laid to rest, there is one grave amongst the maze of tombs in Père Lachaise cemetery that’s not quite like the others. And apparently,…

A Day in the Life of Mrs. Grim Reaper

She only comes around once in a lifetime. Travel to any small village in Sardinia, and you may still hear hushed tales of the accabadora; “angel of death”; the women chosen by their community to live out their days veiled in black, and charged with the task of ending the lives of others at the mercy of their cudgel.…

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The Scrapbooks of a Real-Life Tarzan torn between Africa and Studio 54

Andy Warhol called him a modern Tarzan. “He jumps in and out of the snake pit he keeps at his home. He cuts himself and paints with the blood. He wears sandals and no socks in the middle of Winter. He lived in a parked car on 13th Street for six months. He moved when…

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Drop Everything, and Let’s Run Away with Ernst Kreidolf’s Flower Fairies

Some stories deserve to be told in a whisper. Tales of hidden flower kingdoms on the edge of a river bank, where caterpillars dance with apple blossoms and fairies fly on butterfly wings. Such are the tales woven by 19th century children’s book pioneer Ernst Kreidolf, whose meticulous watercolours fleshed out the richest fantasy worlds…

The Quest for the Irish Atlantis Is a Thing

Every seven years, it emerged from the mist. The isle of “Hy-Brasil,” aka the ancient Irish Atlantis bound to the whims of the sea, revered by locals as the home of their pagan gods, or else, as the outpost of a lone magician and his castle – the rumour mill never stopped churning. Nor did…

Not for Tourists: Island of the Dolls

Are you in the mood for a good ghost story? I always am. Doll collecting is a pretty spooky habit on its own. But when you start hanging them from trees on a remote island allegedly haunted by the spirit of a girl, well, things start to tip the scales. Deep in the canals of…

The Studio That Made Rock & Roll History Is Rotting Away on a Caribbean Island

The island of Montserrat in the West Indies became a Caribbean Pompeii when in 1995, the Soufrière Hills volcano woke up. The capital was buried in more than 12 metres of mud while the rest of the island was mostly wiped out except for a small unaffected area on the northern tip. Under a thin…

The Best Pieces up for Auction from Audrey Hepburn’s Personal Collection

I‘ve always been drawn to the less clean-cut screen legends of the past, but there was no way I wasn’t going to have my eye on the Audrey Hepburn sale of the century. To own her Breakfast at Tiffany’s script, a pair of her ballet flats, or just a card from the studio telling her what time…

Unmasking the Parisian Phantom of the Opera

What if I told you there is a lake under the Paris Opera House, just like in The Phantom of the Opera? Down, down, down, deep underneath the Garnier Opera in a dingy room with a square-shaped hole in the middle, I found it. Resting in the hole was a ladder that seemed to be descending into…