In many ways my life has been rather like a record of the lost and found. Perhaps all lives are like that.

It was then I thought of Corsica, the place we had discovered together. I craved the wind, the sun and salt, the simplicity of the island.

Now the city is at its loveliest. The crowds of summer and autumn have gone, the air has a new freshness, the light has that pale-gold quality unique to this time of year. There have been several weeks of this weather now, without a drop of rain.

That spring was the start of everything, for me. Before then, I might have been half-asleep, drifting through life.