A Quick Word

I’m never without something to read. My motto of late has been ‘arrive early, bring a book’. This has reduced my stress levels enormously. You see, I come from a family that likes to leave it to just the last second to set off for an appointment. My childhood memories are littered with mad dashes for ferries, trains, doctor’s appointments, etc, etc. We always made it, just. But this meant we never learned the lesson and it has taken a huge effort to break this habit.

I have always been a reader. One of my biggest influences was a series of books written by Willard Price. The main characters were two brothers, Hal and Roger Hunt, who went out into the wild to capture animals for zoos. They fought poachers and hunters who were the archetypal villains and got into all sorts of scrapes with the animals they were pursuing.

I must have read the entire series five times over. They were packed with biological facts about the creatures, some of which was a little romanticised but enjoyable non-the-less.

So, my current book - Zoo Quest for a Dragon - by David Attenborough. Published 1957. Just recently, a lovely chap with a second-hand book stall handed me a bunch of old paperbacks written by David back in the 50’s and 60’s. I started with this one because I’m back off to Borneo at the end of next month and wanted to see what David made of it all, 50 years ago.

Its a real life account of the kind of adventures I loved as a child. It’s astounding. I visited Java and Bali as a tourist in 1997 and it blew my mind and this book brought so much of it back.

I can’t believe just how much filming trips have changed since this time - they always present some challenges but David’s trip was absolutely incredible - we have months and months of planning to schedule our every move, whereas David and co. just seemed to totally wing it. His account is packed with fascinating encounters and a dry wit. I can’t wait to get stuck into the next one!