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Continue reading →: Books of the Year 2023
Top Ten Books of This Year Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal (France)The Romantic by William Boyd Quinn by Em Strang Shy by Max Porter Of Cattle and Men by Ana Paula Maia (Brazil) translated by Zoë Perry Nothing Left To Fear From Hell by Alan Warner The Strangers by Jon…
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Continue reading →: Wicked Weeds: A Zombie Novel by Pedro Cabiya
translated from the Spanish (Dominican Republic) by Jessica Ernst Powell This is not a novel to take on if all the reader seeks is dismembered limbs, rotting flesh and devoured brains. Those aspects are present, but in the background as to the fore is Caribbean folklore, science, wit and wily…
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Continue reading →: Back In The High Life Again..It is good to be back in the mountains again after my self imposed exile of two weeks. It was getting to the stage when I was getting withdrawal symptoms. I had thought Cape Kitries was a good stopover, but there was a lot of litter and rubbish around, and…
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Continue reading →: Film Festival – Days 4 to 6
Next into my own private film festival was a German film, their entry to to Oscars next year, called Das Lehrerzimmer, or, The Teacher’s Lounge. It concerns a young ambitious teacher, Carla Novak, in her first job at a High School encountering a zero tolerance approach to discipline, authorised searches…
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Continue reading →: North from the ManiI drove north towards Kalamata this morning after two weeks on the Mani peninsula. Its rugged wilderness has etched its place into my memory, there is nowhere quite like it. It does though, offering limited opportunities for hiking, due to the heat in the summer months, but also the thorny…
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Continue reading →: Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers
Set on a Southern army base in the peacetime of the 1930s the narrative concentrates on six characters, each with their own demons, yearning for love in it’s various forms, and searching, without success, for salvation. The bored and frustrated wife of the self-assured Captain Penderton, Leonora, is having an…
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Continue reading →: The Second Annual SRD Film Festival
Three days into the 2nd Annual SRD Film Festival, this year taking place in the Mani, in the southern Peloponnese of Greece, and it’s going well so far. First off was Saltburn, new to streaming. It features Barry Keoghan from a less privileged background in Liverpool studying at Oxford University…
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Continue reading →: Mani’s Ionian Coast
This is a quiet time of year for Alika and the Mani. Though a few visitors came from the cities for the long Christmas weekend, they came seeking tranquility. The only disturbance was the odd barking dog, and the occasional speeding car; the place is afflicted by seemingly bored young…
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Continue reading →: Portrait In Smoke by Bill S. Ballinger
Bill Balinger, a prolific American author and screen writer, has been credited with being the master of the noir thriller, and one of the foremost exponents of the dual storyline. Portrait In Smoke was his first major success, published in 1950, and was later (in 1956) filmed as Wicked As…
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 