The background which created the writer in me

Of course, I had written reems of material in the past, which did actually include a regular gardening column for the West Coast Sentinel, when I was living and working in and around Streaky Bay, a beautiful coastal village on the West Coast of South Australia. But that was fifty years ago, and apart from a brief interlude of photo-journalism in Bangladesh during the 1990s, journalism didn’t return to my life until I came to live in Kenya, in 2007.

Writing, editing, and publication, grew to be a regular feature of my work. Apart from an ability to pen coherent, informative articles, it would seem I also had a bent towards art and design, and layout work. I say this, because my salaried life is littered with an array of newsletters and magazines and booklets, which culminated in a 100-page classroom tool for primary schools in Kenya, aimed at teaching and learning all about the climate crisis. This was my last Hoorah you might say, just before retiring to live and write on the coast of Kenya.

I needed the experience to support my writing

I guess my character was moulded by so many illuminating experiences across vastly different locales. Growing up amongst the chocolate-box villages of Cornwall in England was perhaps as far as you could get from the sunburnt rural vista which became a part of my daily life in Australia. Then a leap into the totally unknown of India, interspersed by spells in Singapore and Malaysia, and as mentioned Bangladesh, added other vibrant dimensions. Much later, it was back to England, then on to Africa.

Each of these locations hold vital memories, which can be learnt but never assumed: those charismatic personalities I met down under; the contrast of rural and urban schools in India; coping with a return to family and friends in England, then teaching English across the Australian /Asian /European spectrum. These were all components of an experiential dimension, which have become a cornerstone for my writing. I live in awe of much younger people who write good novels, because the experience they have at their fingertips is relatively limited.

Then finally to Africa.

But perhaps the most invigorating part was left to last, like leaving the juiciest bits on my dinner plate, to savour towards the end of the meal. For it was the youth of Kenya who left a truly indelible mark on my memory: Anthony, the boy from a Nairobi slum who would rouse several hundred kids at major school events, or Tracy, the girl from a village school, awakening the consciousness of her audience, as she spoke from the podium about the climate crisis, to eight thousand headteachers.

Kenya came across to me as a potent mix of beauty and culture, poverty and wealth, trust and greed, but most of all as a vibrant, innovative youth, who when given the chance could accomplish the incredible.

… and so, to writing: this website, those newspaper columns.

Strangely, the coronavirus provided the impetus; the missing link which brought it all together. I was roaming past middle age, a prime contender for the dreaded disease, so decided to coral myself away in my apartment near the beach, not far from Mombasa. It was already something of an isolated retirement, but now I made sure my isolation came with a Capital I.

A collection of jottings had accumulated in hand written form in an increasingly bulging folder, along with a small A5 notebook, where I’d stored all the poetry, written over the past 40+ years. Articles on the laptop (including the poems) were also mounting up, and that became the main motivation for starting the original website. After losing many files in a robbery at gunpoint in 2017 I wanted somewhere to store them more securely. I wasn’t so interested in publicising my work at that stage, I just needed a safe place to create the portfoilio.

During this period, I’d also been writing on topical issues, in particular related to the politics of the day and Sustainable Development. The best of these were emailed to The Guardian in UK. Then around this time, and completely by chance, I met the editor of a local monthly newspaper: Madafu’s Rishi Arun Parikh. Thus began a long-lasting relationship; writing quite short, pithy columns: first Sustainable Change, and later Travelling Light. The articles drew heavily on my experiences, both my career in the Sustainable Development field, and travelling for work and for leisure in Australasia, Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Then came the book: Whittling our Niche

Finally, just as Covid19 was bringing its all to bear, I began the first book: Whittling our Niche, from the Tree of Life. By that time, over 200 articles were on the website, which became a ready resource for the book: the life story, the travel experiences, the poems. All that and much more had to be brought together, added to, and heavily edited, before it began to shape up as a coherent and flowing 270-page book, with an attractive cover design, along with a meaningful beginning and end, to encompass the many travel experiences in the middle.

Whittling our Niche was published in the UK, by Austin Macauley Ltd, in paperback and as an e-book. Receiving my first paperback copy was an experience never to be forgotten; similar I guess to scanning through the first copy of those magazines I used to produce so many years before, but with an added degree of exhilaration.

By the time I came to the book, I was beginning to realise that writing was my new vocation; that I was indeed IN MY ELEMENT whenever I sat at the keyboard to put sentences together, that formed stories for others to read and enjoy.

Once Whittling our Niche was completed, I quickly moved on to a second book of short stories (Heaven’s Above!), and a third, that brought together the poetry collection, amassed over several decades (Maree, the Emoji, and Me). Both will be published later in 2026.

This of course presented a problem. The first website domain was titled www.whiitlingourniche.com (the same name as the first book). Now of course, if there were many books, that would have to change. Thus, this current website domain has become www.duncangregoryauthor.com. In doing so, the new website has also been considerably upgraded with direct links to social media platforms, Amazon, and others.

So what happens from this point onwards

Moving quickly forward my current aim is to complete a fourth major writing project within the next twelve months. This will be a novel, set on the glorious equatorial coast of Kenya. I’ve managed to come up with a plot line, and have locked in the beginning and the end; there’s just the small matter of about 70,000 words to fill the space in between.

But I am confident I will get there; completing a book in yet another genre. I am excited to begin, and because I know I will be In My Element throughout, I am sure that I will finish.

Please do keep in touch with me via this website. And when you can, do provide feedback on the website and/or the book(s). Positive criticism from readers is always highly valued, and whenever possible I will try to respond.