MEET THE AUTHOR - ROBIN CLAY
Dear Mike, Re: Meet the Author
I sometimes wonder if backgammon players are more inclined to be entrepreneurs and risk takers than the average population. (What about a bit of research on this subject amongst your members?) Look at the famous backgammon players of our time: Jimmy Goldsmith - he died recently worth some two thousand million pounds after a lifetime of tremendous risk taking. Then look at one of his backgammon playing buddies - Jim Slater. He also made millions of pounds but lost the lot in the secondary bank crash. When you read my story it seems (in a small way) to be similar to the story of Goldsmith and Slater. When Sally [Robin's wife] read my draft her comment was "this would be a good outline for a thriller by Jeffrey Archer".
I have had great difficulty in writing this. Perhaps your headline should be: "How to write a backgammon book and lose £100,000" (although as I never actually got the £100,000 in my hands - it is - strictly speaking - misleading.) I have chosen to write about my backgammon books as a part of my business life.
I could provide you with a different version based more on my personal experiences rather than business experiences. I could, for example, describe the frightening flying I had to do (during the Mau Mau terrorist rebellion in Kenya) doing supply drops in a light aircraft flying at very high altitude. An internal combustion engine loses 3% of its power for every 1000 ft of altitude, so when operating at 13,000 ft the aircraft power was reduced by about 40%. So perhaps you can imagine what it is like when caught in a strong down-draught and finding yourself being crushed against the side of the mountain, often made even more dangerous with clouds and rain.
I could tell of leaving my wife and children alone at night whilst I went out into the forest trying to ambush a gang of terrorists who had killed our neighbour some two miles away. My wife had no telephone, wireless or any means of summoning help. We lived in a thatched house and the most common method used by the terrorists was to set fire to the roof and wait for you to be forced out - whereupon they would chop you up with pangas (cane knives). She can describe only too clearly what it was like alone at night, jumping at every sound, planning how to make a run for it with two small children in one hand and a revolver in the other.
I could tell of the championships and prizes we won with our Jersey cattle at agricultural shows and how I was badly gored by my champion bull in front of the crowd. Sally actually watched me being tossed through the air and the bull drive its horn through my leg. So ask her if you want a description of the event. Despite massive damage to my leg I had absolutely no pain (until several hours later). Nature has a way in these fight/flight desperate situations of blocking out all pain. As I was thrown through the air my mind was dominated by the need to survive, I knew that the moment I landed he would gore me again and I was trying to plan how to escape this inevitable follow-up attack. This strange lack of pain, that sometimes accompanies severe injuries, is the mechanism that enables war heroes to win their medals by continuing to fight despite the most terrible injuries.
I have been exceptionally lucky in that I have twice met death and come back to tell the tale. The first occasion was when I was very young. In the late twenties and early thirties an epidemic of encephalitis lethargica swept round the world killing about 5 million people and leaving a similar number in mental institutions for the rest of their lives. Did you see the BBC programme called 'the awakening' about these people? Or a programme a couple of weeks later about this disease? I am one of only two people alive in the UK today who made a total recovery from this illness, for which there is no known cure and nobody knows how it is transmitted. I spent many days lying in a death coma from which no one expected me to return!
The second occasion was my recent heart attack when I had one of those rare but very vivid 'near death' experiences. I can, if you wish, send you a full and detailed description of this strange type of coma, slipping back and forth between life and death. Although it may seem surprising to you I found death to be immensely attractive - I cannot explain how tempting it was to let go and succumb to its siren voice promising the end of all pain and struggle and offering utter peace and tranquillity for ever more! Equally strange and fascinating was the spontaneous way my subconscious mind fought to pull me back from slipping over the brink into death's welcoming embrace.
There seem to have been so many different events in my life it is difficult to know where to stop. At one time we had a Colombian drug dealer as a customer and were involved with the Drugs Intelligence Agency in trying to trap them. Our business had security clearance for our work with GEC and Marconi which was mainly dealing with documentation of defence equipment and systems.
So perhaps you will see why I don't know where to start or where to end with the information your require.
Robin Clay, 2 September 1999
|
