"This might be my most precious memory of our home on Ameland, the island off the coast of the Netherlands. Unable to sleep I lean out of our bedroom window in the middle of the night. I can barely hear the surf in the distance but otherwise there isn’t a sound. It’s a dark, black velvet night. Then, suddenly, from a bush not far from our window the Nightingale starts to sing its long, harmonious song. This feels like heaven. And far off in the distance, near the horizon, the rhythmic light of the lighthouse flashes in the dark. Three flashes, every fifteen seconds, is the signature of Ameland."