and welcome to this occasional blog about matters concerning Bruno and the Perigord and France, along with food and wine and other matters close to Bruno’s heart.

Readers who enjoyed ‘Bruno – chief of police’ will be encouraged to know that the second novel in the series is almost complete. The title has yet to be decided, but the plot combines fire and wine. A mysterious fire that looks like arson burns out a field growing an experimental crop of genetically-modified plants. At the same time a large international wine corporation is trying to buy land cheaply in the commune of St Denis to restore the Vezere valley to its tradition as one of the premier wine-growing areas of France. But what will such a giant enterprise do to Bruno’s beloved St Denis? And then comes a bizarre death….

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The Dutch edition of ‘Bruno, chief of police’ has now been published, and it looks very different from the rather cosy atmosphjere of the cover on the English edition, depicting a French market and a policeman with a baguette under his arm. This jolly image of French village life also graces the home page of this website.

The Dutch cover is gloomy and menacing. In the lower part of the picture, a small and lonely stone house stands in the middle of a carefully-tended vineyard. But most of the image is taken up and dominated by an ominous and brooding grey sky. There’s not a human face to be seen. It’s very powerful, and somewhat chilling.

The Canadian edition comes out soon and is very like the English edition.

The US edition is very different, a retro kind of image that recalls the 1950s. It depicts a lonely cop in blue, young and slim and bare-headed, standing apart from an anonymous crowd drawn in red and in loose outline, with very geometric but very French buildings in the background. It evokes a certain mood and period of France, when Camus was the revered author and existentialism was the fashionable philosophy. It’s very striking and we’ll try to post it here, technology permitting.

PS – The Dutch and American covers can now be seen on the ‘Bruno in different lands’ section of this website, which may be found in the contents list on the Home page.

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