Category: Life in Switzerland

  • Tiramisu – best recipe ever…

    We eat to live in this flat. Even though I’m glued to the set this time every year, watching The Great British Bake Off, I’ve never been a fan of standing for hours in the kitchen, and the characters in my books are more likely to make spag or order in pizza than cook anything…

  • Over the sea to… Friedrichshafen

    Our lake – Lake Constance – is huge. 536 square kilometres, to be exact. Standing on the banks on a misty day, you can almost imagine you’re gazing out over the Atlantic. The photo below was taken from the Austrian end, and shows Germany on the right and Switzerland disappearing on the left. Last week,…

  • River…

    I’ve always lived near water. In Glasgow, we have the Clyde, and nowhere in Scotland is hugely far from the sea. (Insert horror memories of learning to swim in a North Sea fed pool in St Andrews.) Arriving in Switzerland in the 80s, I was pleased to be living so close to another lovely river.…

  • Summer…

    At long last we’re getting shorts and t-shirts weather here in N.E. Switzerland, and it’s lovely. Breakfast on the balcony overlooking the woods, birds singing and wasps buzzing – okay, maybe I could do without the buzzing wasps. Here’s a sunshine pic of the woods today, at 6.42 a.m. exactly. Even sunnier was my mood…

  • Baby Dear…

    It’s not long to go until Baby Dear, my new ‘book baby’ is out there in the world – I hope to have the cover on the blog very soon (it’s brilliant, thank you, Bloodhound Books!). Meantime, I’ve been thinking a lot about babies… how you worry about them… all the funny and wonderful and…

  • Crime writers go hiking…

    One of my purchases in Scotland was this bag – The Body In The Library is one of my favourite Agatha Christie reads. On Friday, a friend and I took it for the first hike of spring, here in N.E. Switzerland. We were at Altenrhein, the border between Switzerland and Austria, where the ‘old’ Rhine…

  • LAMBS!!!

    Yesterday (Saturday), I was sitting in a bus on the way up to town. All was peaceful. Until a woman, complete with grandson, got on and sat down nearby. The little boy would be three, maybe four, and he immediately started chatting to his Omi about playgroup. Their conversation went something like this: Child: Playgroup…

  • Books Without Borders….

    Standing in my living room this morning, I can see into three different countries. Switzerland, Germany, Austria. It’s fun, living in borderland. In summer we take the ferry across the lake to Friedreichshafen once or twice a month, to stroll along the promenade there, admiring the mountains back home in Switzerland. (We’re too close to…

  • 2016 – the best of times and the worst of times… (a minimalist’s version)

    The death of David Bowie on January 10th was a shock to many people, including me, and 2016 did seem to provide us with more than usual ‘famous deaths’. It’s been a big year in politics, too. But here’s my personal take on the past 12 months: Best book moment: Holding Chosen Child for the…

  • Who brings your cat’s Christmas presents???

    This time next week… actually, by next Sunday, Christmas will be over here – we celebrate on the 24th in Switzerland. At some point late afternoon or early evening, the Christ-child brings not only the presents, but also the Christmas tree, and deposits them all in a corner of the living room while nobody’s looking.…