Happy reading to my four competition winners, who will each be receiving a copy of James Attlee’s Isolarion. They are: Neal Brown, J Cavanagh, John Wyatt-Clarke and Rob Jones. Thanks again to the publisher, And Other Stories, for putting up the prize. And thanks, too, to James Attlee, who has reminded us (usefully, in these times) that you don’t have to go to the ends of the earth to write an original book about a journey.

  And Other Stories, which is based in Sheffield, is a not-for-profit private company that aims to publish “innovative contemporary writing from around the world”. It does sell its books through shops, but it’s the support of subscribers that makes the books happen. It now has about 1,400 in more than 40 countries, receiving up to six books a year. During the Covid-19 crisis, it is doing what it can to support bookshops: 20 per cent of the price of each new subscription will be donated to the bookshop of your choice. For details, see the company’s website.