Noriko Ogawa has finished translating my book ‘Out of Silence’ into Japanese, after more than a year’s work. As Noriko zooms about the world, she and her editor in Tokyo have been corresponding about the precise choice of words and the appropriate tone, and I have been watching helplessly from the sidelines because I don’t speak Japanese and can’t offer a solution. I can clarify what I meant in English, but it seems that many things have to be subtly re-aligned for the Japanese reader.

The Japanese edition, published by Shunju-sha, will come out in early summer. I’m excited about that, and extra-pleased because it will have at least 12 photos, mainly nature scenes, taken by me. I only recently started taking photos and never expected to see any of mine in a book.

Noriko sent me this delightful photo from Tokyo. It shows Hinata, the grandson of friends of Noriko, inspecting the English edition of my book. My youngest reader!