Vroom with a View

Peter Macken emailed me recently to remind me that I'd once been videoed at Mosman Library in Sydney, talking about my new book at the time, Vroom with a View.

I told him he was mistaken. I'd never been filmed at Mosman Library. He promptly sent me the link.

Just goes to show. Nothing remains hidden on the Internet forever.

Going Around In Circles

The first big trip I ever did was back in 1991 when I travelled around the equator. I wrote a book about it too, but back then nobody was interested in travel.

I filmed a lot of stuff too. I was young and naive and figured I could make a TV series. I didn’t have a clue! The result is a manuscript gathering dust and a box full of SuperVHS tapes.

With the advent of YouTube etc I’ve been toying with the idea of doing something with it all. Yesterday I sat down and mucked around with some of the footage shot in Siberut, one of the Mentawi Islands. You’ll find it below.

I’m interested to hear what you think. But before you say anything, I already know I shouldn’t wear a loincloth!

Around the world in 40 minutes

Annie Caulfield and I were asked to entertain people over lunch on the Reader’s Day at the 2007 Guilford Writer’s Festival.

The title of our talk was ‘Around the World in 40 minutes’ and the idea was that we would circle the globe in an East/West direction with the help of some of our favourite authors.

I started with a joke about Mike and the Mechanics - Mike Rutherford was born in Guildford. It fell flat but thankfully things improved after that.