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Book Review
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Book Review: by Lang Reid
The Education of a Travel Writer
 Prolific
writer Harold Stephens whose 30 odd titles include The Strange Disappearance
of Jim Thompson, Under the Rising Sun and Tales from the Pacific Rim, has
written a new book for all the aspiring writers out there, called The
Education of a Travel Writer (978-0-9-9786951-2-7, Wolfenden Publishers,
2009).
An autobiographical publication, he did not write it as a “how to” book, as
he says that his method of getting to be a writer was certainly not the
stuff about which text books are written.
After his divorce he went to Tahiti and set up his Hermes typewriter, which
he sells there and later he buys another Hermes, and indeed mentions Hermes
all the way through the book - but it is an Olivetti on the cover. He is a
good writer, but all good writers need a good sub-editor! (Told to me by a
professional sub!)
He decries anyone who puts their career or non-career down to “luck”.
Success is “not the case of good luck versus bad luck. We are where we are
and what we are because of ourselves.” Hear, hear, Mr. Stephens.
Stephens also notes some of the traps for young players. One is the plea
from an editor of a magazine to send in an item and illustrative
photographs, and the writer will get paid later, after the magazine is
solvent. As Harold Stephens says, don’t do it. You will never get paid. I
have only done this once myself - and, guess what? I never got paid either!
He gives a very salutary lesson in the chapter on plagiarism and deception.
With the ready availability of other people’s work via the internet, it is
even easier than before to steal whole chunks of work, holus-bolus. Cut and
paste may be the way to quick writing, but as Stephens points out, it is
also the quick way for any writer to blight his or her career forever.
Harold Stephens had also fallen into that trap, but escaped unscathed. This
time it was a case of “luck”.
He writes about the sometimes fractious relationships between writers and
photographers, especially young prima-donna photographers. The concept of
relative worth is always contentious and a minefield he tries to avoid.
“Most photographers, even professionals, are difficult to travel with. I
always end up carrying their extra cameras and tripods and help them set up
reflectors,” writes Stephens.
Stephens is more than just a writer, but is a skilled raconteur. His
life-long habit of jotting down conversations has probably assisted him, in
that way, but I have the distinct feeling he may have the Irish blood
somewhere! Irishmen being the masters of story telling.
It is not a “how to” book as Stephens mentions at the outset, but it still
has some very good advice for the tyro in the writing game. At B. 495 it is
a good read, and his anecdotes are generally very amusing. However, there
were too many literals, misspellings and other publishing errors for a book
written by a man of his literary stature. Perhaps they will be corrected in
the second edition.
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