I am writing from our home in Lutry where for a year we have rarely ventured out due to COVID. The view of the medieval town, Lake Geneva and the French Alps is stunning. Lutry was founded as a littoral neolithic settlement and a line of menhirs still stand facing the lake. 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. This last year many of us have come to understand viscerally how much we are part of nature, how much we are one world. I have just finished writing a novel that speaks of this and hope now to find a publisher. So many of us belong to several communities, speak diverse languages and carry multiple passports… or none at all. I have kept a COVID diary and after rereading it I understand what a leap we have made into the unknown. Fortunately, there are books.

Lutry telephone box transformed into a book depot