The book that never will be...

A writing project that never got off the ground was going to be about Sumatra and would have involved my old friend Nick and I tackling the island from tip to tip. Here is a flashback scene from the last time we were there together, way back in the last few days before I turned 21:

“Oh my God!” Nick said, with enough of a quaver for me to take him seriously.
“What?!” I asked, treading water, clinging to the upturned kayak that the current was trying to tug from my grasp.
“Oh! My! God!” Nick shouted. He was facing upstream, his back blocking my view of what was causing his panic. There were tigers in this part of the world, bears too, but it was neither of these that worried me. A day earlier we’d met a researcher who had told us that just a week before he’d seen a four meter python floating down the same river that we had just capsized in. But it wasn’t pythons that bothered me. The python he’d seen was dead anyway, a bite taken out of it by the only animal I feared. There were saltwater crocodiles here, the largest of that malicious family, and one of the very few creatures on earth that viewed humans as snacks.
Nick flinched, and I saw movement in the water, coming towards us, with irrefutable purpose.
“Oh my God,” this time I said it. It was coming right for us, ready to feed. I cursed Nick, my oldest friend, my best friend, for it was he that I blamed for capsizing us and dumping us in the river, the name of which we didn’t even know.
“Oh my God!” we said in unison, and it drew closer, to my enormous chagrin skirting the endlessly lucky Nick and bee-lining towards me.

London!

This evening I am making my rather circuitous way to London, where I will have various media appearances and events over the next two weeks. My immune system has decided to punish me for the abuse I put it through over the past month in Patagonia by generating a coldsore the rough shape and same size as France. That's a nice one for the cameras...

Talk in London

Hi all,

Anyone in the UK (or further afield with a willingness to travel), I will be giving a talk at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London, Wildlife Theatre 3 on January 31st at 4pm. The event will run for about 40 minutes and includes the story about a lion who changed the lives of hundred of animals, with a Q and A afterwards.

I look forward to meeting anyone who comes along.

Peter

Badge, from the story Pets

Videos from Bolivia

I have recently spent a month in Bolivia, volunteering at a wildlife rehabilitation center run by the Inti Wara Yassi group. During the month I worked with a puma named Roy - here are some clips.



(language warning on this one)

Old photo not used in either book

The new website for Peter Allison

Hi all,

For some time my official website at www.peterallison.com has been shamefully neglected. This will all change soon with regular updates, new photos and information about upcoming books.

I also have to apologise to anyone who has tried contacting me through the website over the past few months - the system went down and I haven't received any mail, so have been unable to reply. From now on I will reply to all posts here or you can reach me through Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/#/pages/Peter-Allison/5686359511?ref=ts - or Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/peterallisonsafari .

I look forward to being in touch with you all.

Peter Allison