Last night I saw the Japanese edition (published by Shunjusha) of my book ‘Out of Silence’ for the first time. Its translator, the concert pianist Noriko Ogawa, flew back from Tokyo yesterday and very nobly came straight from the airport to visit me, bringing me a copy of the book. What a strange feeling, to see this lovely book but not to be able to read a word of it in Japanese! I looked at the cover and had no way of knowing which characters were the title, my name, her name, or anything.

Here we are in the garden last night, toasting the success of Noriko’s translation. I am so glad it has been translated by a musician.