Daily Post
SUNDAY JULY 6, 2008
From: Muir Vidler, London, UK
It was very nice to see you... good to bat a couple of ideas around for 'the book'... we could be a good partnership... as you pointed out, because we are not such an obvious
pairing... part travel, part reportage, part diary sounds like a good
cocktail to me...
Hi Muir - after we spoke I talked with my literary agent who was absolutely, utterly, supremely negative in that extraorindary English way I've spent forty years having to put up with in the music business: "Won't work - can't be done - won't sell - totally not worth doing". He had an explanation of course - it's because there are already so many travel books that bookstores HAVE to put on their shelves that there's no room for more. Every bookstore MUST stock the "Lonely Planet" books, MUST stock the "Rough Guides", MUST stock the "Eyewitness Travel Guides" etc. And when they've put all these books about all the different countries onto the shelves there's no room to squeeze any more books between them. "So forget it", was his message and I left feeling a touch depressed. But really, what he'd told me (though he didn't realise it) was that travel books have become the pop records of the book industry. It was always like that in the music business. Every shop had to stock the Top 40 so how could they find room for new artists? And of course we - the managers - solved that problem week after week and got new artists into the charts despite the dreary pessisim of all those miserable people at record companies. From what my agent told me it seems travel books have never before been so popular - nor more boringly formularised. There's obviously a need for something fresh and different and what we're planning could be perfect. A bit more focussing perhaps, then we should get on with it. And with photos like yours how can it fail.
Sharon Osbourne by Muir Vidler
SATURDAY JULY 5, 2008
From: Danny Jamieson, Vancouver, BC, Canada
A long time back I remember you talking about what books you'd been reading - a strange bunch if I recall correctly - and I thought it was time for another update. Myself I've just finished Barrack Obama's book about his father which I found dull rather than inspiring. I thought back to that wonderful play John Mortimer wrote - "A Voyage Round Father" - more insightful, more amusing, more revelatory. If only America could import its presidents from Britain. Anyway Simon... read any good books lately?
Not many! I don't much like fiction, just factual stuff, memoirs, autobiography. Though that's not altogether true because I enjoy reading fiction in Thai. Not sure why. Perhaps because I read slower in Thai and the story helps pull me through the book whereas if I want facts I prefer to gobble them up fast in English. Currently I have two books by my bed. In Thai, The Remains of The Day by that strange Japanese man who writes in English, Kashiguro Wotsit. Since what he produces is already the fruit of two cultures it seems reasonable enough to read it in a third, and in Thai it works rather well - I can't imagine it would be as good in English. Next to that is "Quicksands", a book by my favourite writer in English, Sybille Beford. Second time of reading and still stunning. Written when she was almost blind at 93 and as witty and youthful and sharp (though not hopeful) as something written by a thirty-year-old.
FRIDAY JULY 4, 2008
From: Anthony Anderman, Singapore
Thanks for coming down to see us last night. If the meal was a bit casual I trust at least the wine made up for it. Sorry about the karaoke. Hope you made your flight.
Anthony - the meal was ridiculous, probably the biggest collection of seafood I've ever had put in front of me, but the karaoke, as always, was the worst possible way to end an evening. Since other people had to be considered, you're forgiven. I shouldn't really be so snooty about it, the last time I was in Singapore I was in a karaoke bar too, though not on purpose - I was looking for somewhere else and wandered into the karaoke bar by mistake and there singing his balls off was Jerome Walton who used to be the Pink Floyd's tour accountant. The end result was an all night bar crawl during which we somehow got emeshed with an exceedingly posh Thai girl (the daughter of a Thai general) who ran all the Thai hookers in Singapore. They're given official licences by the Singapore government to come and 'hook' within the law for a three year period on the condition they'll never enter Singapore again afterwards. Odd place isn't it - Puritan yet pragmatic - which is one more reason why I think your project will do well.
THURSDAY JULY 3, 2008
From: Gordon Torrance, Jakarta, Indonesia
Yesterday, reading your website and pondering on the delights of a kiss with Mr Soonsiri, I realised it's been a long time since we've been in touch. So how are you? Last time we met you looked very different. A lifetime of eating and drinking, I suppose. Anyway, just to remind you of what was, here's a picture I took of you in my flat in 1976.
Hi Gordon, I remember your flat well - in Manchester Square - grand but ragged round the edges, untidy, with lots of things lying around, most of them applicants for that pop group you endlessly planned to launch but never quite did. (I always presumed it wasn't really meant for launching, just for auditioning.) Anyway, good to hear from you. Actually I was in Jakarta recently but had no idea you were there. Never mind! We've done quite well not seeing each other for thirty years - should manage another thirty OK, don't you think?
WEDNESDAY JULY 2, 2008
From: Charles Arnold, London, UK
Dear Simon Napier-Bell, my wife and I have enjoyed two wonderful holidays in Phuket. We considered buying a small holiday home there but my wife began reading about Thai politics and is now worried that our investment might not be secure. A few days ago I chanced on your website and read a piece by you in which you were extraordinarily sanguine about the political situation in Thailand, saying the country was a secure place in which to invest and that there was nothing to worry about. Excuse me asking this but is what you wrote really your considered opinion or were you writing that way simply to be amusing?
What a tedious question! Of course I meant what I wrote. I reckon you and your boring wife should stick to package holidays in Phuket. And if you really want to know about Thai politics take a look at the picture below. Mr Prasong Soonsiri has been a leading political figure and a deft operator for the last twenty-five years; when he speaks other politicians listen, yet his mouth perfectly sums up Thai politics - a dirty place to be. To form a government, many a Prime Minister has had to get into bed with him. Would you like to? Or your wife, maybe?
I'm told he gives a mean kiss.
TUESDAY JULY 1, 2008
From: Bibi Espedes, New York, NY, USA
Morning Simon: read the story and give me your thoughts?
(MTV are about to do digital downloads.) Biggest Kiss.
Hi Bibi,
it's a natural thing to happen. I've thought for a long time - the future of popular music is for every radio and TV station to offer downloads of their currently playing song. The real potential being with car radio.
When you tune your car radio, you set up a credit card account with with each station. When you're driving and they play a song you like you tap a button on the radio and the song goes straight on to your in-car recordable hard-disk, charged to your credit card. The result? Billions of downloads - though cheap-cheap prices need to be a part of it too. Radios and TVs at home will have the same facility. But it's cars that offer the big future for downloading.
MONDAY JUNE 30, 2008
From: Philip Adey, London, UK
Hi Simon,
How are you? I hope this finds you and Yo well and enjoying life.
I pass on the message below as I notice that you are a 'lost' Old Boy. How careless of them. No doubt if you have any desire at all for them to be able to contact you, you are quite capable of letting them know.
Hi Philip, thanks for passing on the letter from Bryanston. I have no objection to putting myself in touch with the place but I'm surprised they don't tell a secretary to key their 'missing' old boys into a search engine. I'm sure a quick Google would find half of them at least. In my case the first page would bring up at least twenty sites with links to my email address. But maybe they don't use emails. When we were there it was considered one of the more progressive public schools. Now I'm wondering if they even have a computer?
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