I am writing from our home in Lutry where for a year Marc and I have rarely ventured out due to COVID. Lutry was founded as a littoral neolithic settlement and a line of menhirs still stand facing the lake. The view of the medieval town, Lake Geneva and the French Alps is stunning. In our garden, where once bears and wolves roomed, we have a friendly red robin and other delightful birds that keep us company. 

We are fortunate, but people are suffering. We have come to understand viscerally how much we are part of nature, how much we are one world. Some of us belong to several communities, speak diverse languages and carry multiple passports. Many others are refugees without any papers. My COVID diary shows that in a year we have made a leap into the unknown future. I have just finished writing a novel that foreshadows these times and hope now to find a publisher. My belief in books, reading and writing them, is an enduring pleasure.

Lutry telephone box transformed into a book depot