-
Continue reading →: Day 2 – To GlentroolALT ALT Day 2 – To Glentrool 28th April It only took a couple of hours to get the van sorted. The electrical problem was the digital readout on the wall, which, for now, has been disconnected. It’s not really necessary as the same information comes to an app on…
-
Continue reading →: Day 1 – To WitherslackDay 1 – To Witherslack 27th April Welcome to my blog which charts the first journey in my Crafter, it’s conversion just completed coinciding with the ‘reopening’ of Scotland just yesterday. It’s actually the second course for my dog Roja, following on from the trip to Pyrenees and Picos last…
-
Continue reading →: Billiards at the Hotel Dobray by Dusan
translated by Rowley Grau This is a chillingly human story that revolves around two crucial dates a year apart, in 1944 and 1945. It tells of the critical moments in the lives of a handful of characters; an Auschwitz survivor and former shopkeeper’s return home, a young girl’s first love,…
-
Continue reading →: Children in Reindeer Woods by Kristin Ómarsdóttir
translated by Lytton Smith This is a very strong ‘life during wartime’ novel that begins in a brutal way. In an unnamed country during an unspecified war three soldiers come across a small and very isolated farm acting as an orphanage, with the name ‘Children In Reindeer Woods’, a place…
-
Continue reading →: The Wild Laughter by Caoilinn Hughes
It takes a special writer to make a story of assisted suicide and the 2008 recession engaging and witty, but that is exactly what Hughes has pulled off in this memorable novel. Its about a Roscommon farming family; brothers Cormac and Doharty ‘Hart’ Black and their father, the Chief, who…
-
Continue reading →: Confessions by Kinae Minato
translated by Stephen Snyder Though this comes over at times as quite contrived, it is highly entertaining. On the first page, Moriguchi, a middle-school teacher passes out poisoned milk to her students in a gesture coldly calculating; a traditionally nurturing action taking on grotesque dimensions. It gradually dawns on you…
-
Continue reading →: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
I’ve spent the last few days in the company of Shuggie Bain and am that much better for it. It’s a very good book, but it has a few especially memorable scenes. Shuggie is different. From the age of six he dresses well, he speaks without the local accent, he…
-
Continue reading →: Theory of Shadows by Paolo Maurensig
After staying for a few months at the Hotel do Parque in Estoril, Portugal, world chess champion Alexander Alekhine was found mysteriously dead in his room on March 24, 1946. He was soon to play a title match against Russian challenger, Botvinnik, the cause of death was not clear, and…
-
Continue reading →: Childhood and Other Neighborhoods: Stories by Stuart Dybek
Dybek is a second generation Polish American born and raised in Chicago. This is a novel in stories, of his adolescent heroes with grimy urban backgrounds of the South Side of the city in the 1970s, the common factor being hopes and dream in adversity, not yet metamorphosed into nightmares.…
-
Continue reading →: Smoking Kills by Antoine Laurain
I’m not a smoker. I tried when I was 13, but fortunately, I didn’t like it. I can assure you that you don’t need to be to enjoy this. Most of us know someone who does smoke, and rather than trying to quit, simply enjoys it. I suspect Laurain himself…
To live more widely
supera superiora sequi
SafeReturnDoubtful is my alias. Rua is my fox red labrador pup, born 14 Feb 2026 and learning fast..
Where is Rua?
I was so much older then…
Quote of the Week
Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, ‘What road do I take?’ The cat asked, ‘Where do you want to go?’ ‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it really doesn’t matter, does it?’
Lewis Carroll
Safe Return Doubtful 