Hello Split!

I am currently in the city of Split, in Croatia, courtesy of the KURS Organisation and their Marko Marulić residency programme for writers and translators.

Marko Marulić (1450–1524) is a hugely influential figure and preeminent in the Renaissance literature of the region, and beyond: his Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae is apparently the first literary reference to psychology.

Here is the celebrated sculptor Ivan Meštrović’s statue of Marulić – which I came across while walking in the town yesterday. Unveiled in 1925, the statue shows Marulić reading to an audience, and is situated outside the Renaissance Milesi Palace in Split old town, home of the Školske knjiga bookshop, one of two bookshops in the old town.

As well as writing, I will be doing my share of reading to audiences, in Split and elsewhere in Croatia during the coming month, including in Koprivnica on 20th June, where I will be reading from my latest novel The Fountain in the Forest and discussing my fiction with the Croatian novelist Marko Gregur.