When the Slovenian government declared an epidemic on 12 March 2020, I was simultaneously worried and enthusiastic. Would my income be affected? Without a car and living five kilometres from the nearest (frankly dire) supermarket, how would we manage to buy groceries? Public transport was withdrawn and we were stranded in our little outpost in north-eastern Slovenia. On the other hand, we had the luxury of space – our garden, the nearby woods, and miles and miles of quiet lanes where we could step out for fresh air without coming close to another person. Without the distractions of going into the city, sitting in the pub, and shopping trips to Austria, there’d be time to pick up abandoned hobbies, to improve my German, to reduce the ever-growing pile of Nordic noir, and to try some of the mouth-watering recipes in my vast collection of cookbooks. I needn’t have been concerned about struggling for work. Six months earlier I’d decided to give up teaching and focus only on proof...