Well, dear, patient subscribers, on 15th June I’ll be heading back to Ischia to reclaim Nicoletta and start off once again on my island odyssey. One Summer in the Islands will become Two Summers in the the Islands, and, while this might not be in keeping with my original dream, perhaps it may make for a more interesting journey in the round. 

When he picked me up from Gatwick Airport, my brother, Tom, said ‘I’ve been thinking about what’s happened, and do you know, Matty, I think this might be for the best.’

‘How do you figure that out?’ I asked, frankly not impressed by his analysis.

‘The trouble with your other books,’ he said,’ is that they’re too bloody cheerful.  Nothing ever seems to go wrong. It has gone wrong this time, and treated properly, I think it could make for a much better book.’

Whether the abrupt end to my travels last year and the subsequent months or recovery and rehabilitation will actually make for a better book, I don’t know. It will certainly make for a different book. Of course there’ll be further feasts and folk and foods. There’ll be sea and sun and sorcery. But there will also be a certain change in perspective. I’ve had time to mull over what I have done so far, and consider what I might do in the future. The initial somewhat unfocussed enthusiasm has crystallised into a clearer view of what I’m up to and why I’m up to it.  The man who will be setting out again in June will be a year older. But wiser? That’s not for me to say.

But the blogging and the Instagramming will fire up again, and so please join me online on Ischia, Procida, Capri, Pnza, Ventotene, Salina, Panarea, Alicudi, Filicudi, among the Egadi on Ustica and, well, on whatever island you fancy. It’ll be more interesting me for me, and, I hope, for you.