Remembering wonder

It’s exactly seven years since the day I appeared on the Jeremy Vine Show and my world changed. And as if to prove the main learning from my Group Photograph project that ‘Anything is Possible’, there is very little I could have predicted in what has happened since. You would have had to be living in a very well-stocked cave not to have some idea of the horror show that has been unfolding, but even in the darkness there are stars and my latest unpredicted glimmering has come from Jeremy Vine again which in turn was fed by an unexpected source.

Back at the beginning of the pandemic, I was working on cleaning up my second book ready for publication. I was used to being a hermit but this was different – there was no choice – and suddenly, like so many, I felt I had no connection to the outside world. What saved me from raving insanity was my daily walks, camera in hand, looking for images to brighten the days of my family and friends. It’s difficult not to be uplifted when given a vision such as this:

So in amongst the bleakness and horrors of the pandemic, I unexpectedly reconnected with wonder for the world we live in, and at the end of last year I decided to make that into a book: ‘Remembering wonder – seeing the world anew in a pandemic’. As per usual, what seemed like a quick idea was anything but. Keeping a chronological sequence of the pictures imposed a structure that took some finessing and I also had to find the right balance between the personal and the general, the serious and the ridiculous, all the while trying to aim for wonder. In the end I had an indication that it might have worked when I heard this from one of my lovely first readers: ‘I sometimes looked at a picture and covered your text to try and imagine what you were going to write... failed every time.’

Aptly, the gestation was 9 months and then I started sending it out to the big name supporters of my previous work. Given that it was unlike my other books and a lot more personal, I was uncertain as to how it would be received and was thankful for an immediate Wow! response from William Boyd on the day he received it. Likewise Melvyn Bragg responded quickly and with genuine enthusiasm. And then there was Jeremy Vine. At first I hadn’t thought to send it to him – I’d got nowhere trying to get my second book past his gatekeepers at Radio 2 – and then I saw an article about how he had nearly been broken by a stalker (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62977842) and I thought he might need some cheering up – that, after all, is the whole point of the book. So I made a better effort to get it to him direct and in response I got a hand-written letter - he was really touched and enthusiastic and was happy for me to pass on his words.

You can see what they all said, and ‘Look Inside The Book’ on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/099353029X (if you are not in the UK, it is also available via Amazon’s sites worldwide). (Sorry if you don’t like to use Amazon, but I couldn’t afford to go the traditional printing route like with my previous books and am using Amazon's print-on-demand service – if you’d still like a copy, please email me at andrew@groupphoto.co.uk and I’ll see what I can sort out – likewise please get in touch if you’d like 3 copies or more and I can sort out a better deal for you than is available via Amazon).

‘Remembering wonder – seeing the world anew in a pandemic’

Notes:

• William Boyd’s latest novel ‘The Romantic’ definitely illustrates the idea that ‘Anything is Possible’ as well as emphasising the importance of moments, how certain key events and images can sit in our heads and define our lives.
• I’m reading Melvyn Bragg’s memoir of his early life ‘Back in the Day’ and have very much connected with his bemusement at his younger self, how it can be that he has such an enquiring mind as an adult and yet as a younger man he failed to ask all sorts of questions that were key to understanding his personal history and the fundamentals of how he is today. He is definitely not alone in this and I’m equally bemused that, even after all this time on Earth, human beings haven’t learnt to pass on the need for this sort of questioning to the next generations.
• I am currently taking time out from the First World War and working on a big project based on the family tree drawing design that I developed from the Group Photograph. I haven’t forgotten my promise to make videos based on the men’s trees. It’ll happen, maybe even in the New Year.

Wishing you a good way through this current mess,

Andrew