Recurring threads

We’re in eclipse season, with the eclipse of the sun on August 12 totally visible in parts of Europe, and partially visible from the UK. The countryside in England, as across Europe, is uniformly brown and dry; I’ve never seen a summer…

It’s very nearly two months since we began our retreat in Arles, France, called “Coming To Our Senses.” Two months, for me, of travel and family connections; of selling our Paris apartment; of visiting my children and old friends. It’s…

As this is my eightieth newsletter and the last one of this year, I’m going to indulge in a backward look across the year, as well as perhaps dare a forward look. This time last year, we in the US were teetering on the edge of changes so…

I’ve been thinking about my father this week: he died on March 11 1991, just a few weeks after his last game of tennis. He was all about keeping moving – both physically and intellectually. As children we followed him on long marches…

The date above happens to be the publishing date for my novel “Bone Whispers”, as mentioned in my last newsletter. You can now order it from any good book store, or online – and I’d be grateful if you might think of posting a review…

This summer, I started writing a memoir. “From World War Two To Covid 19 With Some Light Relief In Between,” perhaps… And here we are in November, so this present moment where I plunged in – literally - is already the past, even though…

September, and we come towards the end of a strange season - summer for some of us, winter for others. I’m somewhere mentally stuck in about April/May… The pandemic keeps us at home still and each day resembles the one before. So, what has…

Having been grounded by a fall from a horse in Dorset (not the horse’s fault – entirely my own) and landed flat on my back, I’ve had time to think about my early writing life, and the publication of my first book “A Day To Remember To…