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I
had already been to Singapore
once during a backpacking Round-The-World trip that lasted fifteen
months and saw me working in San Francisco, visiting a friend in Sydney
and catching various respiratory diseases in New Delhi (£5 for
the best doctor in the city, thank you). At the time, it was the mix of
cultures that I liked the best in the city-state, but when I returned,
seventeen years later, on my way to Australia and New Zealand, it
was the transformation into a world city that I found
fascinating. This was an exotic culture, but its British colonial
background and the slow seep of Western thinking through the global
marketplace (which is also one of ideas) made it a lot more
approachable and comprehensible. Although I spent thirteen weeks
travelling in New Zealand aiming to
write a book about the country, it was my days in Singapore that kept
inspiring me to jot down my thoughts and transcribe my journals when I
came back. In the end, I gave up and returned two years later to finish
the book that had emerged, published again by Summersdale. My only piece of writing from that trip to New Zealand surfaced in the Sunday Times in an article about the Chatham Islands. As that trip to Singapore en route to the South Pacific had been marred by having my arm in a sling, I thought it would make a fitting metaphor for a tourist's blinkered view of a different culture. And if you are in any doubt that it happened as I tell it, here is the picture to prove it: in Singapore with a sling, sipping a Singapore Sling. Because of confused and untraceable copyright, I couldn't include two poems I wanted to in the book. So here they are: |
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Released in June 2005, this South
African travelogue is my second book, also published
by Summersdale. Soon after, I joined the British Guild of Travel Writers in September 2005. Fans of Brazil will be happy to note that Rainbow Diary is half its size, but that the personal, historical and social commentary remains and, since this is South Africa, the tone is noticeably sharper than in Brazil. You can read a section of the book (with associated pictures) by clicking on the chapter African Drama. Here is the Chris Hani School referred to in Rainbow Diary. Since I wrote the book, Oprah has discovered it somehow, and she has taken it under her wing - maybe she read Rainbow Diary! As a result of her generous aid, the destitution I describe has most certainly diminished. If anything, Rainbow Diary received as many goood reviews as Brazil (including one from the Johannesburg Star) but the ultimate accolade was to be included in the Recommended Reading list for Lonely Planet's South Africa travel guide in the same sentence as Nelson Mandela. Hey guys, I'm well and truly chuffed! I wrote a few articles for Travel Africa, one of which should be read along with Rainbow Diary itself. It involved me returning to South Africa for a prolonged examination of Jo'burg and Gauteng. The city has changed a lot since my visit during the Rainbow Diary tour; so I consider this article complementary to the book. |
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My first book
Brazil: Life, Blood, Soul was published
by Summersdale
in June 2003. It is a very personal travelogue through Brazil, with social
and
historical commentary. The reviews and comments from the readers (many
of whom have personally written to me) were very positive, and I
am ever so grateful to them. I think that the greatest endorsements
were by the Brazilian Embassy in London that included Brazil in
its website as 'recommended reading' and by Cardiff University where
the book was on the reading list for Latin American studies. You can read one chapter online: it is that on the AfroBrazilian religion of candomblé in Salvador. It can be considered an homage to Poppy Z Brite, although unlike her Lost Boys books, the events were deadly serious and are most certainly true. So here is The Day of Ogum. Pictures to accompany Brazil: Life, Blood, Soul Since it also has to do with Brazil, here is my contribution to the Sunday Times' column Confessions of a Traveller The
Rest of the Website
Vital statisticsInterests page (including more travel writings) and a picSee me in shorts ! |
