This, my third collection of poetry, explores our relationship to a tribal past.
Innate instincts and emotions that, despite our modern world, cannot be unlearned; primal connections to nature and brother species that are genetically imprinted in each of us.
I never quite know what I will find when I head out into the trees.
What I have unearthed, rests here.
These Little Things
When we catch these little things,
we do a huge amount of damage.
And now, the Penguins are starving–
no Sardines. The Orca – hunting Blue Whale
calves, bereft of Humboldt Squid.
Coral migrating too, but for bleaching.
Trawled Prawns leading to Hakes eradication.
Bait fish fed en-masse to farmed fish – plagued
by infestations of flesh-eating mutations.
And what of the Oceans wanderers;
The Great Whales, Giant Sharks
The Sturgeon, fished to near extinction?
All these creatures, habitats need our
protection– the Sea’s floor –
Mud and writhing microscopic things
turning, worming, storing carbon.
Help us save, these little things.
This, my first collection of poetry, started life as a memoir. Over time that memoir morphed into a series of short stories about my first encounters with endangered amimals in wild places over the course of my thirty-year career collaborating with Suzi.
In turn, those tales distilled into the form you have before you now. In this regard my words have been on their own journey.
In pursuit of their animal subjects, artists Olly & Suzi start by situating themselves in the subject’s natural habitat. Their 15 years of adventures in such remote places as Siberia, the North Pole and the Galapagos fill this book, accompanied by photographs that document the pair’s process.
Wall Street Banker Jack Wyler has is all: the killer bonuses, the fancy apartment, and any woman he wants. But something fundamental has been missing in his life for a long time. When a mystical artwork becomes the source of his obsession, Jack knows he needs to make changes. Enticed by the thrill of the wild he plans an Arctic expedition with his best friend Jim. However, his quest for redemption becomes a fight for survival when they are struck by a devastating series of events on the Siberian ice pack. Jack returns to New York on the verge of mental and physical collapse. Back at work and with the turmoil of a financial downturn, he finds himself spinning out of control, fighting against corporate betrayal and questioning his own values and sanity.
Set against the backdrop of the heady last days of the dotcom boom and the stark ferocious beauty of the Alaskan wilderness, THIS WAY NORTH is the story of Jack Wyler’s perilous solitary journey to discover his true self.
Author Olly Williams has been working in remote Arctic, desert, ocean and jungle habitats tracking endangered predators and their prey as part of the artistic collaboration Olly&Suzi for the past twenty years. This is the first novel.
Praise for THIS WAY NORTH:
“Art meets the Arctic; high finance meets the alpha male in a tale which you track from the markets of Manhattan out into the wildernesses of the human mind. This novel is packed with an energy that readers should find both exhilarating and informative.”
Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times’ Chief Art Critic.