It came as something of a shock when I recently crunched the numbers on my writing, published and unpublished, over the last 20-odd years. There are over 6,000 pieces mostly editorials, plus over 700 columns and op-ed pieces and then there is the unpublished stuff, possibly 300 or so, spread across three computers and a variety of external hard drives.
There is a plan. Well sort of. For years The Book has been talked of, started and stopped, and never really got the attention it deserves. But with my 72nd birthday waving from a near horizon and assorted clocks ticking it is time to get my arse in gear and do something about The Book. Shape has emerged. The Book will be a compendium of op-ed pieces written between January 2005 and December 2018 each with a commentary explaining context. Depending on space there may be a scattering of editorials but mostly it is going to be the Thursday Thunks, the weekly op-ed column that has chronicled the life and times of a Brit in Pak. Which leaves the bits and pieces that were never designed for the printed page. Some are quite long, running to 20 pages, some are designed to be humourous, and others are part of a series call the Ootergrams that ran in the early part of the first decade of this century. Some are quite intimate in that they touch on areas of my very private life and some, a large handful, are worth giving the light of day via this medium – a blog.
These are what I am calling The Pakistan Papers. The oldest date from the mid-90’s, the youngest late 2006. They cover my period in Afghanistan, NGO work, births, deaths and marriages, triumphs and disasters. None of them are deathless prose, but the least worst are the ones that are going to make the cut. They will be posted mostly unedited, as raw copy, except where I judge my family members in particular would not be pleased to find our internal matters laid before the world.
Having spent a couple of hours today reviewing potential content it is clear that there is much that is just too tedious for words alongside pieces that may be of interest beyond those who know me personally, and a few gems that sit on the fence of fit-to-print and best-to-go-in-the-blog.
Once they are posted here they become public property and I have no control over what is done with them. they can be copied, linked, plagiarised and commented upon, they in a sense cease to be ‘mine’ though they are ‘of me.’ The first couple will be appearing in a day or so. Watch this space.
Thunksforthinkers 