Fresh Words

Apologies again for a long absence. I’ve been working on a book and these days I don’t seem capable of doing more than one thing at a time (in the writing business, that is).
It’s a book of pictures, otherwise I wouldn’t be done for another six months, but it needed a surprisingly large number of fresh words. The pictures are all from my first journey round the world, and they haven’t been published before because the technology wasn’t good enough to make up for my deficiencies as a photographer. But now things have improved enormously, and the pictures look good in print. To do this job I had to read through my own books again, and I came upon something that seems relevant, because writing for my website is always on my list of things to do.
When I was on the road from Nairobi to Mombasa, forty years ago, I wrote something about lists. My rear inner tube had collapsed (we still had inner tubes in the seventies) because the guy who put it in had pinched it. It happened just outside a little town called Kibwezi, and I was forced to spend a very memorable night at the Curry Pot Hotel.
Most people in Kibwezi walked barefoot or in sandals, but I had not got any sandals yet and had read somewhere about parasites that burrowed into your feet, so I wore shoes and socks. Sandals would have been kinder to my sweltering feet and to everyone else around, as well as saving on socks, but they were too far down on my list.
I had a long list of duties that I meant to perform when I had time. They included notes, letters and articles to write, jobs to do on the bike, and modifications of my various “systems,” and they took priority over sandals. I did once have a pair of sandals but could not wear them because they took the skin off my toes, so sandals went right down the list again.
I allowed only a proportion of my time to things I didn’t feel like doing, since the list of things I ought to do was endless and could easily take all the joy out of life. If at any time I really wanted to do anything on the list, of course I did it regardless of priority, but sandals never came into this category because of the painful recollection of skinned toes. That, by and large, was how I arranged my life. The list was not written down, but in my head, and it tailed off down my spinal column where it sometimes gave me a backache.
So, that was then, but I must admit the way I run my life hasn’t changed a whole lot since.
Now, about the book.
I promised to do a book of pictures back in 2000, and I took money from people in advance to help me go around the world the second time. When I came back I discovered that the book couldn’t be done, and most people took their money back. However a few said they wanted me to keep it, and if you are one of those I’d like to hear from you now.
I’m pretty pleased with the book. It’s called Jupiter’s Travels in Camera and it will look good on your coffee table if you have one (I don’t). You should let me know if you think you want a copy. It will be published a few months from now, in time for the 40th anniversary of my trip, which began on October 6th. I remember it well.