Author Name: Andy Brown and Tim Garratt

Andy and Tim met while travelling in Asia; Andy a petroleum executive and Tim a teacher of English and PE. They travelled together before returning to their respective lives.

Andy now lives in Hong Kong and Tim in Shropshire.

Interview:

When did you first start writing?
1992

What inspired you to write your book?
My travels inspired me to write, the adventures have been so rich that the story just had to be told, it just jumped out of us and into the computer. I was inspired to travel and have adventures from when I was a kid, I had a fairly liberal upbringing. Reading the bike adventure books of the Crane brothers/ cousins in the 80’s got me going to devise these expedition.

How would you describe your book?
Well it is about many things, everything really; through the tale of the bike expedition we explore many broader issues. Many people read it to find direction and inspiration while they are considering major life changes.

What do you hope readers will get from your book?
I hope readers will be entertained and inspired to look at life and the world in a different way, and for some to go and do something new and challenging. That is the greatest thing that an author can achieve. We receive many e-mails from inspired people who have taken some action as a result of reading the book so it seems to work for some.

Which writers do you admire?
I enjoy many writers; Yann Martel, Andrew Marshall, Kate Atkinson, Alan Bennett and Paulo Coelho are current favourites. I was also inspired by spending some time with Wayson Choi another top Canadian writer, he is a beautiful person a great writer and teacher and I have been greatly helped by his advice.

Which books have influenced you?
I especially liked ‘Life of Pi’ (Martel, Mann Booker Prize Winner) for the precision of the writing and the way he talks directly and intimately with the reader, it is a joy to experience. I met Yann recently at the Hong Kong Literary Festival and was thoroughly impressed. He spent 4 years writing the book and agonized over every word, and it shows, the writing is beautiful. It is a fictionalized adventure story, written in such a way that you can believe it really hapened, I liked that illusion and sense of mystery very much.

Are you thinking of writing another book? If so what will it be about?
Meeting Yann Martel has given me some ideas for my own next book, to fictionalise some of my adventures into a novel; it seems to allow much more scope than telling the story of a real adventure as it happened. A problem has been to find a way of including hundreds of adventure moments and stories about my life over many years, in many countries into some cohesive form. I think the novel form may offer the solution. I am excited as I have been stuck on this for years. Now I am working on pulling together over 100 note books and computer files into some shape. It is fun and more creative than pure travel writing.