Home Again

I’m just back from a long, long trip, have much to catch up on and haven’t got much time to write, so I’m going to bore you, instead, with some photos of my grandchildren.

And some other photos of friends I met while in Europe, one of whom looks surprisingly like me and one of which was a bottle.

First, the kids.

This one is named Fardou.

She didn’t want me to leave.

And turned her face away when she found out it was a “goodbye photo”. Her siblings, left to right, are Fraukje, Jonathan and Anner, just over a year old – and big.

Here’s the mother of the brood, reading Murder is Everywhere to the kids. Mom and Dad were married in 2002. Upon the occasion of which, they bought a case, en primeur of a very good wine.

Don’t know what en primeur means? Go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_primeur

And, to mark my arrival, we shared their very first bottle of the stuff. Well, not just because of my arrival. Turns out, my visit corresponded with their wedding anniversary, which we celebrated in the Hague in a delightful little Michelin one-star called Callas:

http://www.restaurantcallas.nl/

Note for those of you who aren't wine buffs: Chateau Haut Brion is one of the five remaining Premiers Crus of the Classification of 1855.

Don't know what the Classification of 1855 was?

Go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeaux_Wine_Official_Classification_of_1855

Note to Michael and Stan: Eat your hearts out, guys!

The next day, the folks from Karakter, my fabulous Dutch publisher, wined me, and dined me and took me to a bookshop to meet this guy:

He looks surprisingly like me, don't you think?

Then it was on to Florence, where I spent two nights at the home of the delightful Annamaria Alfieri, author of City of Silver.

Here we are, the two of us, on her terrace. And, yes, that building in the background is the Palazzo della Signoria. Some location, huh?

See more of it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_della_Signoria

While I was in Italy, I popped down to Sicily for a few days.

This is a shot of the highly-unusual cathedral in Palermo. Note the Moorish influence.

I also tried to take some photos of numerous bottles of Nero d'Avola.

But, for some reason, they all came out blurry.

Michael and Stan: Eat your hearts out all over again.

I returned home, somewhat the worse for wear, to get the news that A Vine in the Blood got its first review - one of the coveted stars from Publisher's Weekly:

http://reviews.publishersweekly.com/978-1-61695-004-0

The book launches in North America in December, but is already available, on Kindle, in many other places around the world. (English language edition only.)

That's it for this edition. Tune in next Monday, folks, for a great post from our friend and guest author Martin Limon.

If you know Martin's work (and, if you don't - you should) you'll be expecting it to be about Korea.

But it isn't.

Leighton - Monday