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"Hello readers and welcome to my blog."

These, ladies and gents, are words that I never imagined I would be writing... but here goes.

Hi, I'm Bertie and I leave university this summer after having read Classics for the last three years. Like many people my age though (or so I reassure myself) I have come to the end of a chapter in my life and find myself with no obvious progression, no next-step, quite frankly, no idea. The day every school boy and girl looks forward to is now finally upon me, no more asking to go to the loo, no more back to school haircuts, no possibility of detention, and best of all, no more exams! Total freedom awaits. For the first time in my life I can quite literally do anything, go anywhere, be anyone and yet (somewhat foolishly) I have no plan.

That said, after 18 years in education and approximately 22,000 lessons later - learning everything from the Five Pillars of Islam to the Seven Labours of Hercules - I couldn't be better prepared.

Prepared for what though? Well that I'm not quite sure...

If I was paid a penny for each time I have been asked what my plans are next year, I'd be a rich man already. My answer, which until now has invariably been ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I’m still thinking’, will no longer do. It’s time to make some decisions and kickstart my career, to suppress the carefree student and become an active career-minded professional.

To help in this process I decided to set up a blog. I love writing, I always have. I enjoy the process of putting words together in the hope of making something greater, something bigger and more impressive than just the sum of its parts. Yet in a world where AI can write everything for us, from university coursework to job applications - it is even offering to write this very article (the cheek!), I fear that writing as a skill is slowly waning from our collective arsenal. People have become linguistically lazy, diluted to the lowest common denominator.

This blog is therefore set up for those who want to counteract the mind-numbing, attention-span-shortening, doom scrolling that grips our generation and swap it for some (hopefully) insightful, topical and inspiring writing published every week. Expect some informal opinion pieces, some more intellectual content, cultural musings and travel articles all accompanied by my own photography. It will be a mishmash of material with no obvious direction or narrative, a collection of topics that interest me, anger me, or excited me.

Its purpose is multi-dimensional. Firstly I aim to build a written portfolio of my work to act as a useful asset in my quest for a career in professional communications. Secondly it will offer a snapshot of the world as I see it, full of my thoughts, my opinions and my ideas (so be warned!). But more than anything, it will be a place for me to return to again and again to escape - to sit and think and see what comes to mind.

Before I sign off, why The Grand Detour? Well, it's a play on the Grand Tour - an undertaking that saw young British aristocrats of the 17th and 18th centuries travel around the continent to cultivate their intellects and enrich their artistic knowledge and appreciation (not, in fact, Jeremy Clarkson's Amazon Prime flagship television program). I intend to offer a similar level of cultural enrichment, allowing readers (with any luck) to come away feeling educated, entertained or enlightened - something that a scroll on Instagram or TikTok cannot necessarily offer. It won't be to everyone's taste, I'll admit that now, but dip in and out as you choose and always feel free to get in touch with suggestions or to submit your own work/ideas.

For now, stay tuned and I hope you enjoy.