BACKGROUND TO THE WEBSITE
It was a remarkable feeling:
that inner warm glow when I saw my first book in print - holding it, reading it – in many ways similar to turning the pages and finding my column in the latest edition of the local newspaper; or from years gone by, that first sight of the quarterly magazine I once produced for schools in Australia.
But a 270-page book was a step above all that:
a different intensity.
And it was particularly invigorating, as I was coming to this, my fourth career, as a somewhat elderly author. But also, because I really loved my newfound vocation. I was In My Element: two hours writing felt like 10 minutes. I wished I’d come to this point 40 years earlier. But then of course, I wouldn’t have had the background to inform and embolden my writing: a CATCH-22 I guess.
IN MANY WAYS RECEIVING AND READING THIS MY FIRST BOOK, WAS THE CULMINATION OF MANY YEARS WORK.
Strangely, in 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic was my starting point. I’d written before, but when Covid hit, I locked myself away in the back-blocks of Shanzu, on the tropical coast of Kenya, and got serious. I was no IT expert, but the meagre skills I did possess enabled me to develop a basic website, which was used in-the-main as a portfolio: a safe place to store files (which grew and grew to a total of 250 articles). Then
I happened to meet a local newspaper editor, which led to many of those articles being refined for two monthly columns: Sustainable Change, and Travelling Light.
During that period of writing the newspaper columns, and somewhat in parallel, I began to piece together the book - Whittling our Niche: from the tree of life - much of which was also drawn from the myriad of website articles.
So now, with two books more completed (the second and third to be published later in 2026) I decided it was time to renew the website. Luckily, I found a very talented web developer (Melody Gatakaa) who has done (and is still doing) an excellent job to refine and re-designed the website; meaning it is now more streamlined, with a central focus on a number of books (not just one) and has working links to my publisher, plus Amazon and a number of social media platforms.
Both Melody and I sincerely hope you enjoy our joint attempts to develop this new and much more exciting website.