William Morris travel tips

When the British hotelier Robin Hutson, 67, took a paint brush to a vintage painting in one of his Pig hotels and replaced the man’s red riding jacket with a less-showy brown one, he transformed the huntsman from a posh gentleman into a rural farmer in one swoop.

It is said that when Norse explorer Ingólfur Arnarson and his wife Hallveig Fróðadóttir threw some wooden posts from their ship in AD878 they floated to a bay covered with steaming springs, hence the name Reykjavík, or “stormy bay”, and that’s where Arnarson decided to settle. I am here researching women in Icelandic sagas for my next book, and our two small children have accompanied me, with their father sharing childcare.

As the largest national park in England, and muse to the likes of Wordsworth and Swift (Taylor, not Jonathan), the Lake District needs no introduction. My friend Anthony, on the other hand, who has yet to appear on a postcard or be recognised by Unesco, almost certainly does.

History lovers visiting Paris might have made a plan to check out the Eiffel Tower on Wednesday. After all, it was the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustave Eiffel, the eponymous civil engineer whose company designed and built it.

A collaboration between three great names in hotels, At Sloane brings the finest in hospitality and design to a prominent address in London.