It’s been a long time since my last post and a lot has happened. Most notably, the wheel has turned, the old year has spun away, and here we are in 2016. Just like that. I’m writing from a small desk in a small room in London. The view outside the window is of chimney pots and stained old bricks and black metal downpipes. The sky is milky and the branches are bare. We really are in the deep midwinter. It’s been a strange year, though. Most of winter has been oddly mild, so although we watch the weather forecast and wonder about the chance of snow, there are daffodils sprouting on roadside verges and cherry blossoms pink against the white sky. It seems spring is coming, ready or not.

I have an exciting and busy few months ahead with the publication of The Lake House in a number of European countries. First up, Das Seehaus in Germany, on the propitious date of February 29th, followed by France in March and Italy in late April. I’ll be visiting each country for the book’s launch and hope to see you there.

Druck

Dates for the German tour are now locked in and I’m pleased to be able to share them with you here.

  • Tuesday, March 15 Düsseldorf: Buchhandlung, Mayersche Droste, Königsallee 18, 40212 Düsseldorf
  • Wednesday, March 16 Mannheim: Thalia-Buchhandlung, Am Paradeplatz C1 6-7, 68159 Mannheim
  • Thursday, March 17 Berlin: Hugendubel Bookstore in Berlin Steglitz, Boulevard Berlin, 2 Floor, Scholßstraße
  • Friday, March 18 Erfurt: Buchhandlung Peterknecht, Anger 28, 99084 Erfurt
  • Saturday, March 19 Leipzig: 3-3:30pm Book signing at the Bookstore at the Leipzig Book Fair
  • Saturday, March 19 Leipzig: Buchhandlung Hugendubel, Petersstraße 12-14, 04109 Leipzig

I’ll update this journal and the events page with the details of other launches and tours when I have them.

In the meantime, I’d like to share with you a photograph I took during the week. My eldest son was performing in his school music concert and the event was held in a local church hall. My youngest son didn’t quite grasp the importance of the occasion, nor was he willing to submit himself to the usual protocol expected of an Audience Member. Consequently, I spent rather a lot of time in the foyer with one eye on the concert and the other on an excitable toddler, high on the late night and the change in his routine.

I’m a compulsive reader – my eye is always drawn to text no matter where I find it – which is how I came to be perusing the old bible set out on the entrance table. Inside was a handwritten dedication from a father and mother to their daughter. Copied out carefully was one of the Proverbs.

Perhaps it was the uncertain strains of beginner musicians drifting from the hall, perhaps it was the thumping applause and small proud faces I could glimpse through the glass, perhaps it was the thought of a long-ago parent, long gone now, seeking to instruct their child on the way to live a good life, on how to be a good person. Whatever the case, I was moved by what I read on the frontispiece of that bible. It was clear and simple and it struck me that no matter your faith, the advice given to Phyllis Glynne Evans by her Father and Mother on September 15th 1908 was excellent: ‘Let not mercy and truth forsake thee; bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart.’

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