Category Archives: Writing

18
Aug
2010

A snapshot of a wandering wildman.

5 comments
Posted in Best Bits, Travel, Writing
Back in the spring I gave a corporate motivational talk in Mallorca. As well as the usual smart clothes and laptop for my presentation, I also packed a bivvy bag. The night of my talk I stayed in a very smart hotel. The next morning I filled my pockets from the breakfast buffet, checked out, [...]

Read more
25
Jul
2010

Pedals and Paddles – part II

2 comments
Posted in Travel, Writing
I was only two weeks down the road on my way from Yorkshire to Sydney when the attacks of September 11, 2001 shook America. Suddenly war was declared and my scenic ride through Afghanistan no longer seemed like such a fun idea. So when I reached Istanbul, instead of carrying straight on towards Australia, I [...]

Read more
13
Jul
2010

Writing is not a sensible activity. Just do it.

0 comments
Posted in Books, Writing
Nobody ever got started on a career as a writer by exercising good judgment, and no one ever will, either, so the sooner you break the habit of relying on yours, the faster you will advance. People with good judgment weigh the assurance of a comfortable living represented by the mariners’ certificates that declare them [...]

Read more
06
Jul
2010

Pedals and Paddles – part I

0 comments
Posted in Travel, Writing
Over the next four weeks I am serialising a chapter I wrote for a Lonely Planet book a while ago. I hope you enjoy it as a chunk of old-fashioned vicarious travel writing and a break from the usual blog-fayre of soundbites. Get a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits and enjoy… “At [...]

Read more
15
Jun
2010

Kit selection for a walk across India

4 comments
Posted in India, Kit, Writing
The night train thunders past. The vibrations shake the ground I am lying on through my small inflatable mattress. My head rests on my rucsack. From the darkness I snatch glimpses into the brightly lit carriages. As suddenly as it arrived, the train is gone. The darkness and the silence it leaves behind feel more [...]

Read more
20
May
2010

Flying in a Fighter Jet

4 comments
Posted in Best Bits, Ramblings, Writing
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, —and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of— wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hovering there, I’ve chased the shouting wind along, [...]

Read more
18
May
2010

On the variety of our world

0 comments
Posted in Best Bits, Motivation, Our World, Writing
“World is crazier and more of it than we think, Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion A tangerine and spit the pips and feel The drunkenness of things being various.” - Louise MacNeise ‘Snow’ I am an Englishman. I grew up in an English village. I went to a school full of English kids. My [...]

Read more
17
May
2010

Arctic Expedition

2 comments
Posted in Arctic, Best Bits, Expeditions, Travel, Writing
I have recently returned from a six week trip to the Canadian Arctic. I travelled with the Catlin Arctic Survey to their Ice Base on the frozen Arctic Ocean at 78 degrees north (at the spot often referred to in polar races as “The North Pole”, though in fact it was the 1996 location of [...]

Read more
10
May
2010

The Days of Anguish: being a writer

4 comments
Posted in Best Bits, Motivation, Writing
I find writing books to be the hardest thing I have ever done.
28
Apr
2010

We were born too late to be explorers. To be real explorers. To be one of the hard men.

18 comments
Posted in Best Bits, Expeditions, Our World, Writing
We were born too late to be explorers. To be real explorers. To be one of the hard men (for they were always men back then) fired by such curiosity, such desperate yearning to cross the next horizon, that they were willing to set off for years on end with slim chance of returning, with [...]

Read more