There is the end of the world and an orange-yellow Graziella bicycle. Half a million lire found in the street and a decidedly improbable chivalric dash to New Zealand. An English gentleman with a black Jaguar and five menacing torches making their way down through the dark towards a boat at anchor.
And there is a question that, somewhere past forty, comes knocking at a good many doors: what do you do when life is going perfectly well, yet you begin to suspect it isn’t enough? And what if what’s missing turns out to be the dreams you never chased?
At almost fifty, the author – a musician by profession – had never set foot on a sailing boat. He didn’t give it all up: he kept his professorship, his concerts, his family. He did something less dramatic, but no less risky: he went back to being a beginner.
True stories, told with a light touch and no shortage of irony, about what happens when, instead of pining for the life you could be living, you decide to go and see whether it exists.