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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…
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Continue reading →: You Dreamed of Empirestranslated from the Spanish (Mexico) by Natasha Wimmer The retelling of history in such an irreverent, wryly disregarding manner is everything you wouldn’t expect from a historic novel, but is hugely entertaining throughout. This is a spritely reimagining of an encounter between Cortés and Moctezuma, occurring over the course of…
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Continue reading →: Wake Not The Dead by Ernst RaupachA classic German gothic tale from 1823. One of the first vampire stories. Translated wonderfully into English by George Blink, for the magazine, Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations in 1823.Blink subsequently took it to the stage, having improved upon an anonymous translation. Set in the mountains of…
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Continue reading →: The Lesson by Jesse BallLoring and her husband Ezra were chess-masters, and when Ezra dies Loring in an effort to overcome some of her grief decides to offer lessons. The mother of a 5 year old, Stan, wants her tutoring services for her son, who, she believes, is a prodigy. It so happens the…
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Continue reading →: The End of the World is Nigh..Will this wind, be so mighty, as to lay low the mountains of the earth? I had parked at the northwestern head of the Cocker valley, about 3 miles north of Buttermere lake on a windy night, but it was to get much windier. These valleys of the Lake District…
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Continue reading →: Fowl Eulogies by Lucie Ricotranslated from the French by Daria Chernysheva After the splendid Of Cattle and Men comes this, a similarly themed fable for the ethical carnivore, but this time with a much lighter dose of horror. When her mother dies, 36 year old vegetarian, Paule, returns to her childhood rural home from…
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 