Thursday, January 8, 2026: Rhys Hughes's "A Walk Along Portugal"
Rhys Hughes was born in Wales but has lived in many different countries. He began writing at an early age and his first book, Worming the Harpy , was published in 1995. His work has been translated into twelve languages. He is currently working on a novel and new collections of prose and verse. Until I visited the country, I assumed that Portugal was a Mediterranean land lapped by a gentle sea. The truth, of course, is that its coastline is wholly Atlantic and bashed rather than caressed. My first trip there changed certain of my perspectives in various ways on sundry matters, including custard tarts, dried cod and the wisdom of paving streets with flat stone fragments in a mosaic pattern (pretty but also more slippery in the rain). Primarily, however, I won a respect for the sea that was quite different to the respect I already had inside me for that seemingly limitless expanse of blue. For the first time in my life I became aware that swimming in the sea on a perfectly fine day...