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Continue reading →: More Bothnian BeachesVattaja is northern Europe’s largest coastal dune area with 15 kilometres of shoreline, it is also has one of the longest sandy beaches in the Nordics. At the end of the cape is a causeway to the island and historic fishing village of Ohtakari, though these days most of the…
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Continue reading →: Dead Souls
USA 2026 – streaming on Amazon This is an intentionally offbeat and satirical Western that feels less interested in gunfights and stand-offs, and more so in the moral rot underneath the mythology of the Old West. It’s a strange and often provocative film, closer in spirit to a political fable…
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Continue reading →: The Bridge by Colm Tóibín
Irish Literature – published September 2026 Set in a remote village in the Catalan Pyrenees of the 1950s, this begins with the news that a bridge connecting Llavorsi and Rialp is nearing completion, and though it is seen by some as progress’, many are concerned, not least as it could…
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Continue reading →: A few days in Pyhäjoki and another Parents’ EveningA Finnish news item appeared on the Today programme again this morning, that’s twice in a week. This time it was for the ‘World’s Quietest Festival’. Hiljaa Fest began on 10th October in Valkmusa National Park in the southeast of the country. As well as promoting itself as the World’s…
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Continue reading →: Saving The Fire by Itamar Vieira Junior
translated from the Portuguese by Johnny Lorenz – published September 2026 Ten year old Moisés lives with his father, Mundinho, but is cared for by his older sister, Luzia, a hunchback, in Tapera do Paraguaçu, a rural village in Bahia on the Atlantic coast of Brazil. His other siblings have…
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Continue reading →: Perfecting The Shot by Mathias Énard
translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell – published September 2026 A brutal but compelling read about an unnamed teenage sniper, fighting in an unspecified war in an unnamed country. The young soldier sees himself more as an artist than a blood-thirsty fighter. The precision of his violence makes it…
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Continue reading →: Kokkola MarinaSix weeks before the expected date, sea ice formed last night in the harbour at Kokkola. It was down to minus 8 overnight, but the direction of wind helps as well, that being from the northeast. This high pressure came in a day or so before, but has established itself…
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Continue reading →: Two National Parks and back to the Bothnian coastThis short piece of Michael Palin from Python in 1980 introduced an item on Finland on the Today programme this week. The item concerned a job advertisement for an Archipelago Scent Reviewer & Content Creator in the Turku Archipelago next year. It is here. The Archipelago has has declared itself…
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Continue reading →: The Floating World by Ben Eastham
British Literature – published November 2026 In this, his debut novel, Eastham portrays a Greek island as a refuge being built for the super-rich who seek sanctuary from political bickering, war and environmental uncertainty. The narrator is a struggling writer and teacher who is grieving the death of his wife.…
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Continue reading →: Cécé by Emmelie Prophète
translated from the French (Haiti) by Aidan Rooney This is the first novel I have read from Haiti in translation by a woman, and it’s a cracker. Célia Jérôme, or Cécé, is a destitute young woman in Haiti’s gang-ridden Cité of Divine Power, a ‘lost corner of a lost country,…
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
