Tag Archives: writing

Drafting an introduction to a book about England – your comments, please!

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I am writing a book about visiting places in England. Here is a part of the introduction to the book. As it is only a draft, please feel free to comment on it, and also to let me know whether it would entice you to want to read further. What I have written is below this photograph.

This is what I have written:

There are plenty of remarkable places in England. For as the author Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) wrote in his “A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain”:

“In travelling thro’ England, a luxuriance of objects presents itself to our view: Where-ever we come, and which way soever we look, we see something new, something significant, something well worth the travellers stay, and the writer’s care…”

What Defoe wrote so many years ago in the mid-1720s, is still true today. My book is about exploring a selection of places in England, especially many of them that are not on tourists’ usual itineraries. I have written about locations, which have intrigued me.  Although some of them will not be familiar to most readers, I hope they will be found to be interesting. I have visited most of them since the onset of the covid19 pandemic in early 2020.

For about 10 years prior to 2020, we did not own a car. When the covid19 lockdown regulations began to ease a little in the UK, and greater freedom of movement was permitted despite the high prevalence of the infectious disease, we felt the need to roam around – to ‘escape’ from our neighbourhood. However, we had become uneasy about using public transport. So, in May 2020, when car showrooms reopened, we acquired a car, and began making day trips into the countryside. At that time, staying in hotels etc was not allowed. After a few months, it became possible to stay in hotels, guest houses, and so on.

Before the onset of the pandemic, we had, like so many others, chosen to holiday out of England, believing places abroad to be more interesting than our own country. During the pandemic, we were compelled to travel within its confines. And having travelled extensively in England during the last 5 years, we have discovered that the country is as least as interesting as many lands across the sea on the mainland of Europe. This book gives an account of some of the places we have been to in England since May 2020, and a few that we had already seen before the pandemic.


A friendly encounter in a cathedral in Pondicherry (India)

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Between late 2024 and early 2025, we spent 88 days travelling 4000 miles through India. I have published an account of this fascinating odyssey in my book, “88 DAYS IN INDIA: A JOURNEY OF MEMORY AND DISCOVERY”, which is available from Amazon (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FKTFBFM2). Here is a very brief excerpt from the book. It describes what happened when we were sitting in a cathedral in the formerly French colony of Pondicherry.

HERE IS THE EXCERPT:

“We sat inside the spacious cathedral’s cool interior within reach of the draught
coming from a fan attached to one of the pillars supporting the long nave’s high,
barrel-vaulted ceiling. As we were relaxing in the cooling breeze, a small group
of Indians entered, and went to the front pews, where they knelt and prayed in
front of the high altar. Amongst them was a young couple dressed in their finest.
Each of them had lavish flower garlands (malas) around their necks. As they
walked away from the front of the church towards where we were seated, we
asked them if they had just married. They told us that that was the case. They
had been married in another church and wanted to pray in the cathedral. These
friendly people invited us to join them in the church’s sunlit entrance while
photographs were being taken of them, of us, and of us with them. They asked
us for our blessing.

Opposite the cathedral on a corner plot, we entered a large bookstore. Tables
covered the floor. They were laden with books, mostly new, but not arranged in
any obvious order. Along one side of this vast hall, there were ...“

END OF EXCERPT

Read my book, and enjoy discovering the wonders of India without leaving home!

Writing for pleasure or for profit? That is the question.

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I DERIVE GREAT enjoyment from writing. I enjoy researching the background material that will form the basis of what I will write. Then, I find it satisfying attempting to put my ideas into words because it helps me understand my subject matter and it is challenging to find ways of expressing my thoughts in ways that others will understand what I am ‘getting at’.

Azimganj, West Bengal, India

When my text is ready, I find it both challenging and interesting formatting the it and any illustrative material so that they ready for printing in book form. Designing the covers for the book and eBook is yet another pleasurable activity. The resulting production might not always be as satisfactory as what is sometimes produced by commercial publishers, but at least it is what I have conceived in my own mind: all my own work!

In the unlikely event of any of my books becoming ‘best sellers’, I would be both flattered and very happy. However, I write and publish for pleasure, not for profit. What matters most to me, and pleases me most, is knowing that at least a few people will read my books, and I hope gain something from them, be it information, enjoyment, or enlightenment.

And, just in case you are interested, my latest book, “88 Days in India: A Journey of Memory and Discovery”, is available in paperback (and Kindle) from Amazon:https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FKTFBFM2

A busy market in a street in west London

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CROWDS OF TOURISTS swarm to west London’s Portobello Road Market, especially on weekends. But how many of these visitors from all over the world know anything about the history of the place?

Here is an excerpt from my book “BEYOND MARYLEBONE AND MAYFAIR: EXPLORING WEST LONDON”. Beginning with Kensington and Paddington, it describes London from west of Park Lane and the Edgware Road to (and including) Heathrow Airport, and from Wembley south to Chelsea.

Here is an extract from the chapter dealing with Portobello Road:

“Before the mid-19thcentury Portobello Lane, as it was then called, was to quote the historians Florence Gladstone and Ashley Barker (writing in1924):“‘… one of the most rural and pleasant walks in the summer in the vicinity of London’, and within living memory it led ‘through fields to Kensal Green… cornfields and meadow land on each side… ‘”

Well, Portobello Road is no longer bucolic. It is lined with buildings along its length. Currently, it begins with a short section that leads off Pembridge Villas. It is here that you can stop for a drink at the Sun in Splendour pub, which was built in the early 1850s.Afterrunning a few yards westwards, Portobello Road heads off in a north-westerly direction, which it maintains with barely any deviation for the rest of its length. Number 22 was the first London home of the writer George Orwell. He lived there as a lodger in the winter of 1927. After crossing Chepstow Villas, the road slopes downwards and soon after this the market area commences. On most weekdays, much of the market is dedicated to daily needs, mostly food. On Fridays and Saturdays, the number of stalls and the variety of goods on offer increases dramatically. In normal times (i.e., when there is no pandemic),Portobello Road is choked with crowds of people from all over the world on Saturdays. In the 1860s, the Metropolitan Line (now the ‘Hammersmith and City Line,) was built. It crosses Portobello Road …”

To discover more about London, from west of Park Lane and the Edgware Road to Heathrow Airport, buy a copy of my book/kindle from Amazon website, e.g..:

Your comments about this introduction to a new book about India would be very welcome

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I am at present writing a book about my recent travels in India. I would be most grateful if you would read through this draft of my opening paragraph, and send me your observations about it. Would you want to read further? The paragraph is beneath this photograph taken in Jaipur.

Early one morning in February 2025, our British Airways Boeing 777 jet began moving away from the oddly designed, apparently ‘eco-friendly’, Terminal Two at Bangalore’s International Airport. As the aeroplane taxied smoothly towards the runway, I watched the parched airport terrain and its assortment of buildings, some painted with red and white checkerboard patterns, slipping past. Then with a certain suddenness heralded by an increase in the noise of our jet engines, we accelerated along the runway. Soon, we became detached from the soil of India. As the aircraft rose higher and higher, random memories flashed through my mind. These included eating laal maas on a rooftop in Jaisalmer; a distraught restaurant owner in Jodhpur; a Dutch cemetery on the Coromandel Coast; hawkers wandering up and down a railway carriage in West Bengal; riding through Bangalore in a Jesus autorickshaw; blessing a newly married couple in Pondicherry; tasting homemade nolen gur in Murshidabad; attending an aarti on the Ganges; eating ravioli in Auroville; the ghost of Tipu Sultan; and much more. After flying over the west coast of India, all these experiences and a whole host of others that we had enjoyed during our 88 day stay in India (between November 2024 and February 2025) became, like the Indian coastline over which we flew, distant memories which I hope will remain etched permanently in my mind. In the pages of this book, I will revive these and a whole host of other reminiscences and explore them in detail. I want my readers to enjoy and understand what we experienced during our almost three month long stay in India.

An unusual title for my latest book about India

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SOME PEOPLE MIGHT RAISE THEIR EYEBROWS in surprise when they learn of the title of my new book. Called “The Hitler Lock and Other Tales of India”, it consists of an explanatory prologue and 101 short pieces describing some of my many and varied experiences whilst visiting India frequently during the past 30 years.

My book’s name was inspired by my discovery of a company, Hitler Lock Enterprises, which manufactures padlocks in India. Despite my choice of the book’s title, only three of the vignettes contained in it are related to Germany’s former notoriously monstrous Führer. In these few pieces, I have described how I believe that Adolf Hitler is perceived by many Indians today.

The rest of the book has nothing to do with Hitler. It contains pieces with deal with topics such as: travelling in coracles; problems with monkeys; peculiarities of club life; dress code; encounters with jackals and crocodiles; teamakers and politicians; children called Lenin and Stalin; meeting maharajahs; fabulous booksellers; the City of Joy; Gandhi and his optician; and ‘love marriages’ (including my Indian wedding) – to give but a few examples. The aim of the book is to both inform and entertain, and it is written for those who are familiar with India as well as those who are not.

To be frank, I chose the name of this book to make it both eye-catching and slightly provocative. I hope that by including the word ‘Hitler’ in my title, it will not deter people from reading my text. That despicable genocidal madman is not mentioned much in the book.  And I should emphasise that my text does not glorify him at all.

So, now that you know that my book is about India and its delights, rather than yet another tract about Hitler, you can obtain a copy, and enjoy it.  My text is available as a paperback and a Kindle (e-book) on Amazon’s websites, including (for example):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HITLER-LOCK-OTHER-TALES-INDIA/dp/B0CFM5JNX5/

It is always gratifying if any of my books are reviewed

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IN EARLY OCTOBER 2022. I published a book about London’s Golders Green and its neighbour Hampstead Garden Suburb. It was the part of northwest London where I spent my childhood and early adult life.  I wrote about areas’ past and present, and my memories of living there. The book sells reasonably well by my modest standards, but was not reviewed until early September 2023. Then someone in Germany awarded the book 5 stars (out of 5 stars), and reviewed it on Amazon as follows:

“A very informative and often funny book! I immensely enjoyed reading it.”

Brief as it is, this reviewer encapsulated what I was aiming to do when writing my book. That was, to write something that was both elucidating and amusing.

I am always happy when someone takes the trouble to review one of my books. Naturally, I would prefer a favourable review, but a critical one is also welcome. That a reader bothers to post a review shows that he or she has read the book and reflected on its contents. I find that very gratifying.

The book about which I have been writing is called “GOLDERS GREEN & HAMPSTEAD GARDEN SUBURB: VISIONS OF ARCADIA” and is available as both a paperback and a Kindle from Amazon websites, such as:

Seeing India through the eyes of a Londoner

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AMONGST THE 101 diverse topics in my book about travelling in India, you will find the following four: observing a padlock made by a company called Hitler; encountering jackals on a golf course; travelling in coracles on crocodile-infested waters; and having spectacles made by Gandhi’s optician. Since getting married in India in early 1994, I have made over fifty visits to the country during which I have spoken to many people and explored a multitude of places – both well-known and hardly known except to locals. My book, “The Hitler Lock & Other Tales of India”, contains a selection of my experiences in the country. The book aims to fulfil the idea of great Jean Molière (1622-1693), namely, “If you want to edify, you have to entertain.” I hope that you will find that I have achieved that.

You can purchase my book from Amazon (either as a paperback or a Kindle e-book) by clicking on the picture below:

Introducing my NEW BOOK ABOUT MY TRAVELS IN INDIA

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SOME SOUVENIRS FROM MY VISITS TO INDIA DURING THE PAST 30 YEARS

 —  A new book with a curious title  —

True love drew me to India. Since my first trip there in late 1993, I have visited the country more than fifty times.

My latest book, “THE HITLER LOCK & OTHER TALES OF INDIA”, is a literary ‘collage’ or anthology of some of my many and varied experiences in India. All the episodes in it are based closely on actual occurrences.

After I married Lopa in London in October 1993, we travelled to her native land, India, a few weeks later. From the moment I first landed on Indian soil, my eyes opened wide with amazement, and ever since then, India has filled me with a delightful sense of wonder. 

You might be curious about the book’s title. This relates to a chance one-off sighting (in the 1990s) of a padlock made by an Indian company with the same name as that of Germany’s former Führer. From that day onward, whenever I have been in India and seen a shop or market stall selling locks, I have always looked to see whether any of this company’s locks are on sale.

To discover some of the many things that endear me to India and whether I ever managed to find one of these curiously named locks, you need to read my new book. Illustrated with my photographs, it contains over one hundred short prose vignettes, which can be enjoyed by both those who are familiar with the country and those who are not.

The book and Kindle are available from Amazon.

Paperback: https://www.amazon.co.uk/HITLER-LOCK-OTHER-TALES-INDIA/dp/B0CFM5JNX5/

Kindle: https://www.amazon.co.uk/HITLER-LOCK-OTHER-TALES-INDIA-ebook/dp/B0CG3DX1LP/

Brief profile of an author: a bit of self publicity!

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Adam Yamey is the author of several books, including: “Albania on my Mind”; “Scrabble with Slivovitz;” (Once upon a time in Yugoslavia); “From Albania to Sicily”; “Exodus to Africa”; “Rediscovering Albania”; “Aliwal”; “Bangalore Revealed”; “Indian Freedom Fighters in London (1905-1910)”; “Imprisoned in India”; “Beneath a Wide Sky: Hampstead and its Environs”; “Beyond Marylebone and Mayfair: Exploring West London”.

His latest book is:

“Golders Green & Hampstead Garden Suburb: Visions of Arcadia”

Buy a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BHG873FB/

Born in 1952 in London, he attended Highgate School, and then University College London. After a doctorate in mammalian physiology, he became an undergraduate once more and qualified as a dental surgeon. After 35 years in general dental practice in Kent and London, he retired in September 2017.

Adam married a lady from India in 1994, and, since then, has been visiting her native land frequently. India has become his second home. He is a keen traveller. The periods between his journeys are usefully and enjoyably employed with: family, cooking, writing, photography, blogging, cinema, theatre, and exploring the many delights that London has to offer.