76 last Sunday. 76 sounds an awful lot, but the best way to deal with the march of time is to fall in step with it and stop trying to pretend you’re 18 again.
Ahh! 18! 1961. Roy Orbison ‘Crying’, ‘Green Onions’, Booker T and the MG’s, and Elvis, my hero, driven to record mediocre stuff like ‘Return To Sender’.
Actually, come to think of it, I’m happier in 2019. And busier.
Instead of cramming for exams I’m turning out to promote films like An Accidental Studio, the story of George Harrison’s Handmade Films (Life of Brian, Time Bandits, The Missionary, Mona Lisa, Withnail and I, A Private Function), Final Ascent, a stunning documentary about the charismatic climber Hamish MacInnes, whose life-story makes James Bond sound really dull, and the we-welease of Life Of Brian, which still looks and sounds fresh.
My own most recent project, Erebus, The Story Of A Ship, comes out in paperback at the end of May, and I’m doing a stage tour round the UK in June.
Next week to Norway to give an Erebus talk at the Fram Museum in Oslo. It’s one of those places I’ve always wanted to see as it’s built around the great Norwegian polar explorers Nansen and Amundsen. And I’ll get to step on board Amundsen’s Gjoa, the little ship that finally cracked The North West Passage, fifty years after Sir John Franklin and 129 men died trying to find it.
A potentially very nice acting role in July, followed by a busy autumn – travel filming and the publication in September of North Korea Journal, my diaries of the recent visit to that enigmatic country. Then a nice lie-down and some sweeties. 18? Been there. Done that.
