May has been busy. I’d forgotten how exciting it is to go to a live rock concert and the recent Rolling Stones ‘unfiltered’ gig did not disappoint.
From the pounding base that you can feel in your bones to the spectacular light show and staging as the evening light faded and the night took over, the stones rocked. The ever-youthful Mick Jagger danced the night away with his usual athleticism while the statuesque Charlie Watts played his drums without fuss or expression.
All the old favourites – brown sugar, tumbling dice, satisfaction – were played in a continuous stream for everyone to join in as part of a community singalong. 
A whirlwind tour of Sardinia added to the month’s fun. 
At this time of year, the place is dense with the multiple colours of oleanders, bougainvillea and poppies. Breakfast overlooking the marina in Alghero facing west to the Balearic Islands reminds you that this place is joined in spirit with Catalonia – they fly its flag alongside the Italian and Sardinian flags in the main square. 
The rugged coastline and dense forests have been home to pirates and bandits, and wild boar, foxes, rabbits, horses and vultures, for centuries. Sardinia is also the proud birthplace of the first female Nobel laureate – Grazia Deledda – for literature. The beautiful wild landscape and local life were a rich source of inspiration for her.
And of the book? My research about trials at the old bailey is almost complete. Up 5 flights of stairs and a brisk walk down a long tiled corridor brings you to the public gallery of Court room 3. From there, you can clearly see the box for the accused with its stairs down to the cells below. It faces the judges’ elevated bench with the lawyers’ and the jury’s places to each side completing the square. It’s dark and crowded in the modern age so it must have been more so in the 19th century. A chapter of my book is set here so more of this in due course.
Old Lady by the Sea 