Have just returned from a brief visit to Venice!

Turquoise waters and brilliant sunshine made it a perfect atmosphere. We visited the Biennale – very varied and interesting, but rather patchy with a lack of cohesion. Pavilions that stood out were Russia, Korea, France, USA, Spain, Belgium, Holland and Italy, plus the general art exhibition at the Arsenale. We were thwarted by train and vaporetto strikes which we didn’t know about until we arrived. Yet it was wonderful walking everywhere and our train journey back was surprisingly uninterrupted, just a little like travelling on the tube in the London rush hour…

Venice is like two cities: by day mesmerising in the vividness of its busy large canals and colourful buildings, yet at night a silent Gothic maze of menacingly dark alley ways and shadows, bridges and murky narrow canals [viz. the film of Don’t Look Now by Daphne Du Maurier!] make it seem slightly scary and dangerous…

Maybe I will write something about this in my next novel, Dorek although I do mention Venice in Food Fetish which should be published soon.

Three of the paperback editions now at printers…