Morocco is a mystery of the east, in Africa’s north-west; a former French protectorate with Finnish roots; an oasis-mirage amongst the ocean, dessert and mountains. The most picturesque of the Maghreb countries weaves all contradictions into a woollen magic carpet, overlooks the world from a four-thousand-metre-high Toubkal, treats you with mint tea in the shade of its palaces and draws you in with spectacles on its town squares. The kingdom, with its abundant fairy-tales of the past, has always attracted talent from all over the world. It was here that Winston Churchill created his paintings, Martin Scorsese shot his films, and Yves Saint Laurent strolled around in a kaftan.
– the Marrakesh riads where The Beatles and The Rolling Stones held their parties;
– the cost for a session of magic on the square of Jemaa el-Fnaa;
– why Richard Branson learned about hospitality from the Berbers;
– why the colour ‘ultramarine blue’ has been renamed ‘majorelle blue’ and what botany has to do with it.
