To begin at the beginning...

The notion for this blog came from a paragraph found in a recent book called The Legend and Lore of the Sea by Sean Hayden. Hayden’s book might easily fit the criteria of this blog as he also is one of the lost, the forgotten, the never remembered, the unduly neglected. His novel concerns a smuggling voyage where a younger man is befriended by one much older and wiser in a very archetypal encounter. The older man carries with him a portable library and is much given to talk of books and their authors. The section in question is as follows:

            'I stood at the aft-rail with Doc while he smoked and we watched the twilight of an Ocean sunset. We talked of books. He tells me he prefers obscure authors, the neglected, the forgotten, the never remembered, the authors chanced upon while browsing in some musty old bookshop or among the remnants of a bric-a-brac stall and the new authors who haven’t made a name for themselves. There is a freshness to them, he says, because of their unknown quality, a vitality, a liveliness that the canonised authors seem to have lost. They haven’t been ossified as museum pieces pored over and picked apart by generations of academics and students. Their story is new. You don’t come to them with any preconceptions. Theirs is an encounter of unknown opportunity and potential. There are no signposts to prepare the way for you. They are like the old sailors found in out-of-the-way ports and pubs. They look dishevelled, perhaps grubby, old fashioned, maybe even a little senile. Are they talking to you in the hope of a free drink? You wonder, with a degree of shame mingled with impatience, if their conversation is worthwhile, and then... they beguile you with a story that haunts your dreams – day and night dreams – and remains with you as long as your memory persists.'

That sums up the authors and books I hope to explore here. Among those I intend to include at some point are such figures as Henry Major Tomlinson, Blaise Cendars (little known in England but belatedly celebrated in France), Norman Douglas, Alastair Moray and Hayden himself. I use words and phrases such as ‘hope’, intend’ and ‘at some point’ because I am fighting against a handicap. I am by nature gloriously indolent. My idea of a perfect day is to do nothing. In common parlance, I am a lazy bastard. If I can overcome my innate inertia, I hope to write a little on a chosen author at least once a month. If anyone might stumble across this blog and have suggestions of their own, I would be more than happy to include them – it’ll save me the effort of doing it myself. Make it as short or as long as you like.