Last August, when I heard that he’d died – peacefully in his sleep aged 69, and not gunned down by cartel assassins, as so many had predicted

I’ve got a new monthly column for the Daily Telegraph travel section on a Saturday. Over the next year I’ll be going to twelve different travel destinations around the world and staying there during the off-season. Brace for hurricane season in the Caribbean, rainy season in Thailand, Canada in the dead of winter, reverse migration on the African plains, etc. First stop Chamonix out of ski season.