As a boy, Nathan Penlington had loved Choose Your Own Adventures, the literary phenomenon of the 1980s which thrust the reader into the role of main character and compelled them to make decisions and direct the flow of the story. So, when he discovered a job lot of the first 106 adventures for sale on eBay, there was never any question that he would place a bid. When the books arrived, he lost himself in the old adventures.
Yet, as he flicked through the pages, there was another story being written - for, in the margins of each book, were the scribblings of the little boy who had once owned them, a little boy by the name of Terence John Prendergast. In the margins of the books, Terence wrote jokes, hints for adventurers following the same stories as him - and, more troubling still, intimations of a tormented childhood: of the boys and teachers who had bullied him; of the things he hated about himself and had to improve; of his thoughts of suicide and his desperate need to find friends, be liked, and find somebody - anybody - to confide in.
THE BOY IN THE BOOK is Nathan's poignant recreation of the discovery of the fragments of Terence Prendergast's diary, his quest to find the lost boy, and the friendship that resulted from their first meeting. In doing so, Nathan is forced to examine his own childhood - and, as his relationship with Terence deepens, he begins to believe that the two men are not so different, and to reflect on the darkness that can exist in childhood.
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As a boy, Nathan Penlington had loved Choose Your Own Adventures, the literary phenomenon of the 1980s which thrust the reader into the role of main character and compelled them to make decisions and direct the flow of the story. So, when he discovered a job lot of the first 106 adventures for sale on eBay, there was never any question that he would place a bid. When the books arrived, he lost himself in the old adventures.
Yet, as he flicked through the pages, there was another story being written - for, in the margins of each book, were the scribblings of the little boy who had once owned them, a little boy by the name of Terence John Prendergast. In the margins of the books, Terence wrote jokes, hints for adventurers following the same stories as him - and, more troubling still, intimations of a tormented childhood: of the boys and teachers who had bullied him; of the things he hated about himself and had to improve; of his thoughts of suicide and his desperate need to find friends, be liked, and find somebody - anybody - to confide in.
THE BOY IN THE BOOK is Nathan's poignant recreation of the discovery of the fragments of Terence Prendergast's diary, his quest to find the lost boy, and the friendship that resulted from their first meeting. In doing so, Nathan is forced to examine his own childhood - and, as his relationship with Terence deepens, he begins to believe that the two men are not so different, and to reflect on the darkness that can exist in childhood.
THE LONG VIEW written and read by Richard Fisher - audiobook extract
Headline Books
1 minute 54 seconds
2 years ago
THE LONG VIEW written and read by Richard Fisher - audiobook extract
A wide-ranging and thought-provoking exploration of the importance of long-term thinking.
Humans are unique in our ability to understand time, able to comprehend the past and future like no other species. Yet modern-day technology and capitalism have supercharged our short-termist tendencies and trapped us in the present, at the mercy of reactive politics, quarterly business targets and 24-hour news cycles.
It wasn't always so. In medieval times, craftsmen worked on cathedrals that would be unfinished in their lifetime. Indigenous leaders fostered intergenerational reciprocity. And in the early twentieth century, writers dreamed of worlds thousands of years hence. Now, as we face long-term challenges on an unprecedented scale, how do we recapture that far-sighted vision?
Richard Fisher takes us from the boardrooms of Japan - home to some of the world's oldest businesses - to an Australian laboratory where an experiment started a century ago is still going strong. He examines the psychological biases that discourage the long view, and talks to the growing number of people from the worlds of philosophy, technology, science and the arts who are exploring smart ways to overcome them. How can we learn to widen our perception of time and honour our obligations to the lives of those not yet born?
Headline Books
As a boy, Nathan Penlington had loved Choose Your Own Adventures, the literary phenomenon of the 1980s which thrust the reader into the role of main character and compelled them to make decisions and direct the flow of the story. So, when he discovered a job lot of the first 106 adventures for sale on eBay, there was never any question that he would place a bid. When the books arrived, he lost himself in the old adventures.
Yet, as he flicked through the pages, there was another story being written - for, in the margins of each book, were the scribblings of the little boy who had once owned them, a little boy by the name of Terence John Prendergast. In the margins of the books, Terence wrote jokes, hints for adventurers following the same stories as him - and, more troubling still, intimations of a tormented childhood: of the boys and teachers who had bullied him; of the things he hated about himself and had to improve; of his thoughts of suicide and his desperate need to find friends, be liked, and find somebody - anybody - to confide in.
THE BOY IN THE BOOK is Nathan's poignant recreation of the discovery of the fragments of Terence Prendergast's diary, his quest to find the lost boy, and the friendship that resulted from their first meeting. In doing so, Nathan is forced to examine his own childhood - and, as his relationship with Terence deepens, he begins to believe that the two men are not so different, and to reflect on the darkness that can exist in childhood.
