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Continue reading →: Sédières Castle
The Château de Sédières is a restored 15th century castle surrounded by the forest of Sédières and its many lakes. Known as a jewel of the “Italian Renaissance”, it was classified as a Historic Monument in 1958, and purchased of the Corrèze Departmental Council in 1965 for the sum of…
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Continue reading →: Ballerina by Patrick Modiano
translated from the French by Mark Polizzotti – Published by Yale University Press in 2025 As usual with Modiano the language is beautiful. Paris comes alive from his pen so vivid is the imagery.But it’s so short that I feel cheated. No sooner than we get to know the characters…
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Continue reading →: No Place To Bury The Dead by Karina Sainz Borgo
translated from the Spanish (Venezuela) by Elizabeth Bryer – Published by HarperVia in 2024 Angustias Romero describes her journey as she leaves the eastern mountains of an unnamed Latin American country with her husband and newborn twins to reach the town of Mezquite. In the first few pages we learn…
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Continue reading →: An Invitation to the Manor & the Red TownOver last few days spring has been on hold while winter temperatures returned. I’ve managed to avoid much of the wintery weather that has been around so far on this course, but eventually it caught up with me. Through the advice of a local, a woman I met at a…
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Continue reading →: The Café with No Name by Robert Seethaler
translated from the German (Austria) by Katy Derbyshire – Published 2024 This was a really rewarding reading experience, a vibrant story of a working-class Viennese cafe and the eccentric characters that inhabit it. Robert Simon, an orphan with a tough childhood is in his early 30s in 1966, making a…
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Continue reading →: Beartooth by Callan Wink
American Fiction – Published 2025 The author himself is a fishing guide on the Yellowstone river which partly explains how his descriptions of the seasons and the Montana mountain wilderness are so evocative, they are pretty much characters themselves and certainly play a large part in the enjoyment of the…
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Continue reading →: The Boy From The Sea by Garrett Carr
Ireland – Published 2025 In Donegal, Ireland, 1973, a baby boy is found on the beach of a close-knit fishing village. A fisherman, Ambrose Bonnar, burly and bighearted, offers to adopt the child into his own family, his son, Declan, wife, Christine, and elderly father. The community remains fascinated by…
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Continue reading →: RocamadourRocamadour’s situation, set into the cliffs of a gorge on a tributary of the Dordogne river, has attracted tourists and pilgrims since its beginnings in the twelfth century. Most come for its historical monuments and its Notre Dame Sanctuary, but there are of course plenty of bars, restaurants and souvenir…
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Continue reading →: The Bells of GramondThe sleepy folk of Gramond are woken early on weekdays; whether they choose to be or not. The church bells are loud, but muted between 10 pm and 7 am. Then at 7 am they are back with a vengeance; seven strikes, repeated, followed by a cacophonic miscellany of chimes…
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Continue reading →: The National Telepathy by Roque Larraquy
translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Frank Wynne – Published 2024 The large part of this unconventional short novel is narrated firstly by the unnamed assistant to Amado Dam, a 1930s rubber magnate, then by the deeply unpleasant Amado himself. A Peruvian ship is delivering 19 undocumented indigenous Indians to…
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 