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Continue reading →: Darker Days by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Horror, translated from the Dutch by Lia Belt and published October 2025 I find it easy to write off modern American horror. I’m not the target audience; most stuff is blended with romance and fantasy and attracts readers a lot younger than me. I’m a traditional horror fan of classic…
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Continue reading →: Around ValenciaJust over a year ago, the 29 October to 16 November 2024, devastating floods hit the area around Valencia, and resulted in considerable damage in Sot de Chera, which was evacuated, in some cases in spectacular fashion, by helicopter (see the video). 237 people died in the region. The two…
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Continue reading →: The Shark-Infested Custard by Charles Willeford
American Fiction – published 1993 This a wild ride story of four Miami single twenty-somethings living in a singles apartment in the 1970s whose plans for routine fun get them into some serious trouble. Pharmaceutical detail man Hank Norton, responding to a bet that he can’t pick up a date…
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Continue reading →: Some Days in AlcañizThe small town of Bot on the Val de Zafán Via Verde, or Greenway, was an excellent venue for the weekend, even though it was cold, 8C and with a strong north wind making it feel a few degrees cooler. There were a few other cyclists around on the Saturday,…
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Continue reading →: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
British Literature – published 1971 This is a thoroughly enjoyable book about a collection of older people who have taken residence in a hotel, thereby forestalling for as long as possible a slide into bad health whether physically or mentally, and hence having to spend their remaining days in a…
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Continue reading →: Terres de l’Ebre, CataloniaIt was a cold night at Poblet Monastery, dropping below zero. It’s at more than 600 metres above sea level so not a surprise at this time of year. What was a surprise was waking to voices close to the van at six in the morning. The place had been…
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Continue reading →: An Infinite Sadness by Antônio Xerxenesky
translated from the Portuguese (Brazil) by Daniel Hahn and published October 2025 Newly arrived to a Swiss village at the foothills of the Alps in 1953, Nicholas, a psychiatrist, and his wife, Anna, a scientific journalist, have made it through the Second World War physically unscathed, but the mental toll…
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Continue reading →: Unfit by Ariana Harwicz
translated from the French by Jessie Mendez Sayer and published October 2025 Lisa Trejman’s struggling family has eventually broken, and, as the novel begins, she is alone in France, and far from home in Argentina. Exactly how she lost custody of her children is only hinted at. She eschews each…
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Continue reading →: Through France and into CataloniaSet aside the section through Lyon and St Etienne, my route through France was excellent, and one I’m certainly keen to spend more time exploring. From Cuiseaux in the southwest corner of the Jura there was another hour of splendid Jura hills before trudging through the heavily populated Lyon /…
To live more widely
supera superiora sequi
SafeReturnDoubtful is my alias.
Where is Andy?
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 