Adventure ideas can spring from nowhere

           I have been asked a few times over the years who is your favourite author? This is an extremely difficult question to answer for many reasons, you can be judged on the type of books you read I know this because I do it myself! I am now ok with that, because I suppose my favourite authors do reflect who I truly am right now, you change as you grow which is also fine by me it just meant for me personally - but potentially like this for most people, I have went through phases of reading all kinds of different books trying to discover books I could get a passion for, thus I should now be in a suitable position to actually know exactly what I like, but nailing the answer to one author is impossible for me I would have to make a top ten that way it would possibly be right (or maybe one of them will be the current favourite as they chop and change) – Robert MacFarlane – Wilbur smith – Ernest Hemingway – jack London – Nigel tranter – George MacDonald Fraser – Robert louis Stevenson – HG wells – George Orwell - Jon Krakauer -Christopher McDougall whoops that’s eleven but I could go on

 

      This is only authors in the top ten, not to be confused with my favourite book as only one of those great authors wrote a book that would be in my top ten favourite books, well unless you include audio-books then HG, wells war of the worlds Jeff Wayne’s musical version is the best audiobook ever(the original with Richard Burton`s narration), as a book R.L.stevenson`s treasure island is in my top ten, when I was a child mum and dad had A collection of children’s classics; which I loved, treasure island was by far my favourite among such other classics as Robinson Crusoe, Ivanhoe, robin hood, tom sawyer, among others, I even read the girly ones! black beauty and Heidi! (Times were tough there was no tv in bedrooms for kids in the seventies) just recently a friend of mine was dating a girl from St Andrews, I went up for a night out with them and stayed in her spare room and there it was on her shelf, treasure island in what appeared to be the same classic format mum and dad had, I couldn’t resist even after a lot of beers on a good night out! I grabbed it off the shelf and read it for a couple of hours smiling often ( you may well think what a sado but I was loving it)  

            What’s all this got to do with adventures and walks you may well ask? I was having this discussion with my workmate mark, its unusual to find someone with similar tastes in books and lifestyle as me but mark is on my wavelength, we were discussing books authors and Scottish history people like Alexander Selkirk john Muir and Alexander Wilson, which lead me to  talk about the Scottish trail walk the john Muir way (not the American one) we then changed to treasure island and RLStevenson (also a favourite of his) I explained - I had bought the audio CD for his book kidnapped years back, but had neither read the book or listened to the audio yet(sadly) but I had seen the old film starring michael caine, with a quick check on the internet to research the book, we were shocked to discover there is also a long distance walk in Scotland called the Stevenson way! this walk is based on the route taken by the main character in the book kidnapped david balfour! the ball was rolling,

               The more I read about the walk the more excited about it I became, I started to dream of a way to even make a short book about it comparing the original book the history the landscape then; with the change from now, the politics our culture the Scottish people and places how they have changed? since the time of the book as its actually based around factual events, during that terrible period in Scottish history, much more on that later for now the planning was started, within three days of learning about this walk I had my train ticket to Oban booked, some books and maps bought and a lift organised to the start point  

 

            What I had decided (with some input from mark) was that I would read the book along the way, he was also a fan of treasure island and RLS, who having also not read kidnapped added the book to his list of must reads which is as long as mine? well maybe! I considered keeping a blog comparing the book route to whatever route I end up on, this along with the countryside politics etc comparing then and now as I went, as I searched the internet looking for kidnapped the book and some maps I was flummoxed to discover, I had actually been beaten to my book plan, there was a Scottish author and by all accounts a good one, who had already produced a book along these very lines that I had dreamed of, Ian Nimmo had written a book called walking with murder on the kidnapped trail, I had to buy this! for the walk, It was out of print and unavailable from bookshops, I could only find two second hand copies for sale one from America for £128 another UK second hand copy in good condition for £25 plus £2.50 P&P, for a frugal fella like me this was ridiculously priced, I deliberated for hours: but mark said it was a perfectly acceptable price to pay for something I truly wanted and it would bring me great pleasure,(he was correct) so I bought the most expensive second hand book I’ve ever bought, having recently watched the interesting film called booksellers, I know this is not a lot of money for second hand books, I’ve also read the book diary of a bookseller and this made me realise that the bookseller industry needs eccentrics like me, right now more than ever, they are a dying world like record sellers were in the 90s its difficult for booksellers to make a living,

              after making this purchase whilst reading through the Stevenson way website, I came across a link to buy a book on the way, after clicking this link it took me to an independent Scottish label called uncas books, who also had a book for sale written by someone else Lachlan Munro has written a book called scenery of dreams, someone else who felt it was a great way to walk with history and note the changes, SO it turns out I was not anywhere near as original as I thought, two separate people had done the book idea before me, (must have been a good idea then I suppose), i ended up in an email conversation with the publisher cally a very interesting person with a similar passions to myself probably even greater especially if that passion was only Scottish literature, very knowledgeable i ended up buying two of her books also,which are not about the Stevenson way thankfully as my backpack will be heavy enough