Looking after my deceased brothers four children means not being able to leave the mountain village for a long time. To travel across
the country is tough as the road systems are poor when you get into the valleys – mainly from the winter. You can almost drive through all the different seasons in the space of about five minutes here. From the bottom of the valley where we are now, then up towards the mountain, a line of trees green and healthy. Drive a little further and the next trees are leafless and lifeless. Finally you approach snow-topped pine trees in the full bloom of winter. We can stop here if you like. I come here with my niece for lunch. They shoot the deer themselves, the deer that we’re eating. There was outrage at one thousand lambs being slaughtered to celebrate Albanian independence – celebrations at which the cooked lamb will be served to guests on two tw0-hundred metre-long tables. King Zog was returned to mark the anniversary – exiled from when Hoxha came. Albania shouldn’t have a King. Maybe Elvis. He died in nineteen-sixty. King Zog, that is.