On an autumn day more than two decades ago I sat on a grassy bank overlooking deep, mysterious Jezioro Biale (White Lake) in Kaszubia. A forest splashed with colour retreated from the far shore, overhead a skein of geese honked their way south. It was especially bucolic for someone like me, a war correspondent who at the time was covering the war in Bosnia. Wouldn’t it be nice to live here, I thought, far from the crump of mortars and the crackle of automatic weapons which had been the background to my life on several continents for more than 25 years. Most dreams evaporate the next day, atomised by the need to hold down a job, send children to school and put money away for a rainy one. But I got to live this one, resigning from my job at TIME and building a lodge, a home and a wine business over the years. Paradise, of course, was not exactly as I expected it to be and I have written of the trials, tribulations and small triumphs in a personal memoir which is being published in London by Quartet Books. It should be out in January. It has already got pats on the back from, amongst others, The New York Times, CBS News and the Times Literary Supplement. If you like to know more or purchase a copy, the publisher’s website is: http://quartetbooks.co.uk/shop/the-white-lake
John Borrell