Some of you have been swinging by here looking for the page I until recently contributed to the Observer newspaper in the UK.
Sadly the last Escape has now been published and travel’s taking a back seat in the newly revamped Observer which makes its début on Sunday – and very sexy it promises to be too. The first Ask Tom appeared in the Observer on 22 April 2001 so it’s been a long run and has been the source of a lot of challenges and fun, especially when dealing with readers queries. Rachel Suddart and Fiona Buchan (nee Christie) also contributed to the page in its early stages.
Notable among letters received have been those from an angst-ridden couple venturing on a camping holiday wondering what to wear in bed (pyjamas), a memorably grumpy gent driven to distraction by texts, emails and phone calls whenever he goes somewhere interesting asking him what he ‘s doing (try trekking in west Papua where phone and email don’t go) and not one but three letters from prisoners enquiring about where they can flee to that would not deport them back to the UK (I have no idea, try a lawyer).
Happily this isn’t the end of my own work with the Guardian & the Observer. Ask Tom is moving to a new home online at Guardian Unlimited, and as well as the usual q&a on any travel subject under the sun I’ll be doing a monthly live chat and hopefully some audio and video. The first of these pieces is now live. There’s an archive of previous answers here.
The email address for questions is the same as the one on this site, so drop me a line, it would be great to hear from you.
Tom Hall: travel, London, other things 
Thank you very much for this article. It very interesting.