16th April Dear Sugata Gunilla, you daughter, arrived exhibiting commendable energy keen for a beer her first evening landing. She began recalling not your story but the previous time she was here in 1981 with her husband. With your attention to material detail she brings with her a 1980 map of Kathmandu (published by non… Continue reading Kathmandu: Gunnilla arrives
15/4/2008 email to Barbel, Hamio and Dictionary
Dear Bärbel, Haimo and the dictionary Well, here we are almost a year on. Where are you? I am in Kathmandu, awaiting Gunilla, who arrives this evening. I have with me some of Sugata's ashes, and hope to find a resting place for them and this story, in this land he brought me to, nearly… Continue reading 15/4/2008 email to Barbel, Hamio and Dictionary
Kathmandu April 2008 with Sugata’s ashes
Dear Sugata I am returning to Kathmandu, awaiting Gunilla, your daughter. I have with me the last of your ashes (saved from the mice who I thought had eaten them in my caravan!), and hope to find a resting place for them and this story, in this land you brought me to, nearly… Continue reading Kathmandu April 2008 with Sugata’s ashes
Beginnings
Beginnings and endings, moments when our history accelerates. 1 March 2008 I begin here
2008 Liberia
Liberia March 2008 We left the gentle innocence of Guinea, where people, forever curious about us white skinned visitors, easily broke in to a smile while calling out ‘Ca Va? Or ‘Aller bien?’ knowing that it would solicit a response, a dance. Driving across the natural boarder, the Nimbi mountain range, immediately a different land… Continue reading 2008 Liberia
Africa 2008
No time to delve into background reading, brush up French, read Graham Green. Events took over in little Metfield to swallow up and draw me down a rabbit hole. So ‘To be prepared is to be unprepared’ or is it ‘To be unprepared is to be prepared’? Dakar The human mele outside the airport when… Continue reading Africa 2008
Kevin on Christopher
I've just found these notes, (2026) as I go through papers, knowing now that they will go with me, and wanting to leave a tidy plate for whoever takes over my space. As i typed them up - torn from a note book, i piece a few jigsaw pieces together. Perhaps Christopher had asked me… Continue reading Kevin on Christopher
Sarnath reflections 2002
Last evening in Sarnath. That magical time just before sunset I walk out into the wheat fields around the school. The augmenting oppressive heat of the day is waning, as if breathing out from the cracking earth through the hair of sun dried wheat. Village India. They are scything, mostly women of course, using forms… Continue reading Sarnath reflections 2002
1998 UK Safari
UK Safari - 1998 Edited August 1999 Preamble23 April -3 July 1998Blank sheet of paper. Feel a definite reluctance to write again, after the loss of words with lost computer in India. I’d plenty of time to think about those lost words, on the 36 hour train journey to Goa, and then I’d thought good… Continue reading 1998 UK Safari
Coast to Coast with Bob 1994 September
Edited August 2016, East Lodge, Holton, sitting in my shed (while the Scud is being renovated), one Saturday afternoon. Reading it now I am intrigued by both what I recorded and what left out. All those breakfasts and terrible dinners, names of places, the naming of trees that are so vital to me now and noticing my… Continue reading Coast to Coast with Bob 1994 September
Kalikellett 