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Continue reading →: A Dorset WeekendI spent five days at my friends house just outside Poole. I had thought of taking off to the small hills of Dorset just off the coast but other than lay-bys adjacent to busy roads there are few overnighting options, besides, the hospitality of Joey and Ann was excellent. They…
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Continue reading →: The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre
translated from the Italian by Antonella Lettieri – Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026 In an isolated village high in the foothills of the Dolomites lives the Duke, in a grand villa passed down through the generations of his wealthy ancestors. Without heir, he is the last of the…
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Continue reading →: The Prison by Georges Simenon
translated from the French (Belgium) by Lynne Muir – published 1969 The Prison begins like a conventional murder mystery. After the opening we might expect Maigret to come through the door, but this is one of Simenon’s short and often brilliant, psychological novels. Alain is a successful publisher of a…
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Continue reading →: Cotentin PensinulaMy ferry back to the UK, set for today, Tuesday, was cancelled a few days ago, Brittany Ferries to Poole. I think it’s because it was so quiet. Instead I go a bit earlier, also from Cherbourg, but to Portsmouth. That means I have a couple of hours drive to…
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Continue reading →: Villages of NormandyThis weekend I’m at Saint-Lô-d’Ourville just a kilometre or so from the Channel in the Côte des Isles, very near to the Isle of Alderney; so much so that I can receive British cell phone reception.
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Continue reading →: Canone Inverso by Paolo Maurensig
translated from the Italian by Jenny McPhee – published 1998 This was Maurensig’s second novel, and the last of his five translations into English that I have read, and every bit as good as the others. Framed within a frame, the story begins when an unnamed narrator is fortunate to…
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Continue reading →: Weekend in Genillé, Loire valleyIt’s quiet in northern France as the flooding slowly subsides in the Loire valley. Today I moved a 90 minute drive north of Genillé, where I spent the weekend, and many of the villages have been devastated due to the water level. I went into a Carrefour which was recovering,…
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Continue reading →: This Is Where The Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin
Pakistan – Published 2026 This outstanding book explores the lives of several wonderfully described characters as they age through a post-partition Pakistan to the modern day. Stories about the class or caste system are usually told be the wealthy, who have seen the poor from their elevated position and now,…
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Continue reading →: From the Dordogne to the LoireThe affects of Storm Nile are still very much present in Central France. One reason is the severity of the storm, and another has been that there has been lots of rain this week also. Consequently therefore, I’ve had a pleasant though unremarkable week making my way steadily north through…
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 