Books: non-fiction

Details on:

SAAMA: INNOCENTS IN ASIA

BEYOND THE ROADBLOCKS: Squibs & long shots 1984-2015

ZITHERS, MOSQUITOES: Essays & reviews 1982-2021

TRUE LOVE & BARTHOLOMEW: rebels on the Burmese border

THE CRAFT OF FICTION

LUCK OF THE DEVIL: Flying Swordfish in WW2

HALL IN THE HEART

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SAAMA: INNOCENTS IN ASIA

A journey to India, 1974

SAAMA is a very personal book and one that has considerable significance for me. Travelling overland by public transport from Istanbul to Kathmandu (including a public bus across Helmand province – not something you’d do in a hurry today) and to various parts of India was an education in many ways, which taught me that for all my Cambridge undergraduate confidence, there were vast areas of experience and culture of which I knew nothing. This was a particular little corner of history, the ‘hippy trail’ to the East that came to an abrupt end with the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the Iranian revolution, both in 1979. All this – and the peculiar love story contained in the voyage – made it something of a turning point in my life.

The book has some eighty illustrations, both drawings and photographs.

Available as a paperback from Amazon, or as a hardback direct from Stupor Mundi Books (www.stupormudibooks.wordpress.com).

STUPOR MUNDI 2018

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COLLECTED ESSAYS AND BROADCASTS:

BEYOND THE ROADBLOCKS : Squibs & long shots 1984-2015

Stupor Mundi Books (2017)

Available as an e-book and in paperback from

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and all

major online retailers.

 

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ETHNOGRAPHY

TRUE LOVE & BARTHOLOMEW : REBELS ON THE BURMESE BORDER

 

 

In 1986-7, JF spent an illegal year with the Karen, a large ethnic group fighting for their independence in the jungles of Burma. He was there to help with training village paramedics.  This unusual study is a full-length ‘portrait of an ancient culture remade for ethnic rebellion’, and includes chapters on Karen food, love and marriage, warfare, religion, music, language and other topics. It is illustrated with photos by JF.

 

 

 

 

The book was originally published in hardback by Cambridge University Press (1991) at a fabulous price (now around £85). It was later reissued in a digitally printed paperback, but still not cheap.

 

It’s now available from Amazon in a new format paperback and in a revised edition with many more photographs, and a snip at £9.99.

 

 

 

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A second collection of essays

ZITHERS, MOSQUITOES

Essays & reviews 1982-2021

Fifty occasional pieces on subjects ranging from mental health and refugees in a time of war in Central America, to the traditional music of the mountains of West Java, by way of surveys of fiction and world affairs.

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A WAR MEMOIR

 LUCK OF THE DEVIL – FLYING SWORDFISH IN WW2 

My father, Robert Le Page, started life in an impoverished household in south east London, and ended his career as a distinguished sociolinguist at York University.  In between there came a transformative experience in the Fleet Air Arm flying against submarines in the North Atlantic and with the Arctic convoys. In late life he wrote this memoir which I have combined with additional material from letters and conversations. It’s a rather unusual story.

Published by Pen & Sword Books, Barnsley

Hardback 2011

illustrated

ISBN: 9781848845442

 

 

 

 

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A WRITER’S GUIDE

THE CRAFT OF FICTION

Aber-Publishing, GLMP Ltd, Abergele (Wales) 2011

ISBN : 978-1-84285-104-3

A practical guide to the skills and principles of writing novels and stories. This book forms the basis of the classes in fiction that I teach for St Andrews University and for writers and readers groups elsewhere.

 

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HALL IN THE HEART

A Fife village hall and its community 1914-2014

I was commissioned to write this little book to celebrate the centenary of our village hall in North Fife. It turned out to be quite a revelation for me, the history of the parish exposing tensions and changes in Scottish rural society between the rural labouring families and the ‘quality’ who wished to manage their lives. The book has two dozen photographs by Rodney Mountain and from the archives. HALL IN THE HEART is available from Amazon for £5. The book has recently been revised and updated to include new researches.

Norman’s Law hill, with an Iron Age fort on top overlooking the River Tay.