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Continue reading →: Trenque Lauquen (Parts 1 & 2)Argentina 2023 This is a wonderfully tense noir mystery that rewards patience; both parts I and II taken together make up four and a half hours. As many mysteries do, it begins in the middle. When botanist Laura goes missing, her older boyfriend, Rafa, and would be suitor Chicho, team…
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Continue reading →: Tiger StripesMalaysia 2023 Here is a fine example of what can be done through the genre of horror, as first time Director Amanda Nell Eu observes the coming of age of a 12 year old girl in rural Selangor in Malaysia. This is brave film making as she sees puberty through…
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Continue reading →: A Devil Comes To Town by Paolo Maurensigtranslated from the Italian by Anne Milano Appel It was no surprise that I enjoyed this. I’m a bag fan of Maurensig, having read three previous novels of his and found them all great, and beacuse its his only venture into the horror genre. I hurry to add though, that…
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Continue reading →: The Hand of Kornelius Voyt by Oliver OnionsThis is a speculative coming of age story from the 1930s that in its eeriness and suspense is typical of Onions’s best writing, but also is a novel of its times, in its dealing with workers’ strikes.A difficulty is that the tangents Onions takes to include aspects of historical significance…
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Continue reading →: What’s next?I’d been back in the UK just over three weeks on the Monday that just passed and have found my mind wandering to the next journey, or ‘course’ as I prefer to call it. The term ‘Course’ dates back to my days leading trips of youngsters, and was the term…
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Continue reading →: Not Russian by Mikhail Shevelevtranslated from the Russian by Brian James Baer and Ellen Vayner This political thriller concerns Russian military aggression over recent years in such places as the Ukraine, Chechnya and Donbas, centring around a hostage situation in a village near Moscow. The book’s narrator, Pavel, is a journalist, who has become…
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Continue reading →: Termush by Sven Holmtranslated from the Danish by Sylvia Clayton This short dystopian novella is enjoying a second life, it was originally published in Denmark in 1967 and translated into English in 1969, and enjoyed only moderate success. Faber Editions, who endeavour to find neglected books, have given it a reprint, and it…
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Continue reading →: KirroughtreeKirroughtree is a great stopover, especially at this time of year when there are only occasional visitors. I was keen to stay a second night, but these Stay The Night Forestry locations are supposed to be only for one night. The app won’t accept a payment for a second night…
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Continue reading →: The Cremator by Ladislav Fukstranslated from the Czech by Eva M. Kandler This is the story of Karel Kopfrkingl an upstanding citizen, a family man, of Prague, promoting his entrepreneurial trade of being a crematorium operator. Kopfrkingl despairs of the state of the world in the 1930s, and worries for his family, which he…
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Continue reading →: GallowayThis week I’m in Galloway after a Six Nations weekend in Shap. I’ve watched the games in many different places and circumstances over the years, but this was a first, with a nursery load of toddlers and their fathers, while their mothers jaunted off for a baby-shower to Keswick. My…
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 