Yet here, too, personal and political interact: Herzen must struggle to rescue his ideals from the wreckage of events in the same year as an accident at sea drowns his wife and son.

ECONOMIST: Tom Stoppard: Coming ashore | The

It would appear to be an accident at first, a woman slipping into the dark sea and never surfacing again.

NEWYORKER: Alone

The accident took place in at 2, 000m (6, 500ft) above sea level on the slopes of Mount Cermis, in the Fiemme Valley.

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The men - who are from Cornwall but were visiting family in the area where the accident happened - had been fishing at the beach when a wave swept the younger man into the sea as they were leaving.

BBC: Tregardock