Wildlife cameraman funny business
Wildlife cameraman funny business, what’s that all about?
For the fourth time I won the Caption Competition. I’m not sure why, but I imagine there can’t be too many people who actually enter it.
It’s all in the writing
I’m not sure why I do the caption competition. People seem to recognise my name a little more now, but if it’s just for coming up with stupid comments I’m not entirely sure that that’s a good thing. The funny thing is though, it encouraged me in a strange way to do some more writing. There has been a lot in the media lately about glossy programmes, such as Planet Earth 2, not helping the conservation cause, indeed, having quite the reverse effect. I don’t want to go into that now, but when it comes down to it how do you present heavy duty conservation messages to an audience that don’t really want to hear them?
That’s entertainment
I have come up with one solution, I think. Unfortunately it depends upon people being able read, and even in the case of some world leaders I think that’s a hope too far. Some years ago I wrote a screenplay. The story is set in Mid Wales, and follows a cast of characters protecting red kite nests. There’s another faction trying to steal kite eggs. Around that basic plot there are many other minor stories making up the whole. In the end I gave up trying to make it as a film. Earlier last year, after having won a couple of caption competitions I dug out the script and decided to rewrite it as a novel.
It’s a novel thing
So here I am in early January 2017 with a 90000 word novel. Genre: murder, mystery, intrigue in the countryside. I suppose it’s a little like Midsomer Murders. Anyone interested in this type of story would like the book. What I have done though is injected heavy doses of conservation message into the story. It covers everything from flooding, due to inappropriate upland management, to the problems of pesticides. Well, apart from making conservation videos it’s the best I can do at the moment.