Miles and Miles by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910859162
Publisher: Canelo Books
Published: 2017-11-10T00:00:00+00:00

The other day I started getting calls from editors at the papers I work for, saying that they were going to have their book round-up soon, and that if I could nominate my choice of Books of the Year and have it in as soon as possible…

I hate this moment. My first action is to run my mind back over the new books I have been reading recently. My second action is to realise, bluntly, that I can’t remember what new books I have read this year, as my reading seems to be confined to second-hand volumes. My third is to realise that I can’t remember any new books that have been published this year. My fourth is not to ring back the editors and say that I am unaware of any new books, but to lie low and hope that the other contributors will nominate a massive roster of books…

This year my problem was solved in a surprising way. I got a phone call from a man I have never met called Angus Waycott.

‘We haven’t met,’ he said, ‘but I’m ringing on behalf of Gina Wilcox.’

I couldn’t remember meeting her either.

‘She is an elderly American whom you met, I think, in a train.’

Now I remembered. On the way back from the Edinburgh Festival by train, in 1993, I met one of those tough old American women a bit like Katharine Hepburn who have the remnants of great beauty and steady eyes and who make you think that America is a good place after all. She was coming to Bath. I asked her round to my house for tea. She came. She went. I forgot about her.

And now Angus Waycott was ringing up on her behalf.

‘What’s the message?’ I said.

‘She’s dying,’ he said. ‘She rang me from California to tell me that she is dying. She asked to be remembered to you.’

This was all very confusing.

‘How do you know her?’

‘I met her on a train,’ said Angus Waycott, as if this explained everything.

‘What do you do?’

‘I’m a writer,’ he said. ‘I’ve just got a book out from Andre Deutsch called Paper Doors.’

‘What’s it about?’

‘Well, I’ve spent a lot of time in Japan, and it’s my view of the country and the people. But there haven’t been any reviews yet. Seems to have fallen into a pool of silence.’

I have always needed a good introductory book on Japan and never found one. This sounded like it, even though it was a very curious way to find out about it. The next day I went out and bought a copy. The next day after that I got a complimentary copy from Angus Waycott. I now had two copies and although I hadn’t read either, I at last had a candidate for my Book of the Year. What I didn’t know was whether you could vote for something as Book of the Year if you hadn’t read it, and it wasn’t by a friend of yours…

I did have one or two other candidates for the post of Best (Unread) Book of the Year by now.

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