Benjamin Percy
In Praise of Friends
Posted by John-Paul Flintoff, April 24, 2013 10:22 am
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Filed under: Guests.
If you think this post is going to be all about my book, forget it. Instead, I want to tell you about my friend Roman Krznaric, who is blogging here next week. We're being published together, on the same day. And I can assure you that Roman's book, How to Find Fulfilling Work, is really something.
But Roman can tell you about that himself. I want to tell you about Roman.
When I first heard his name, I visited Roman's website and found some great writing there, like this story which seems to me to owe a debt to the late, great Studs Terkel. I also listened to things like Roman's talk on Outrospection. To be honest, I was a bit daunted, but since then we've done a number of events together. I've found that, as well as having lots of interesting ideas himself, Roman is great at sparking ideas out of others.
Recently, we met together at an art gallery in London. We talked about the books we've just published, and about our new projects. Roman gave me new ways to think about what I'm working on. Afterwards, walking home across the park, I was so full of excitement I recorded a 10-minute monologue into my phone so I wouldn't forget a word. When I got home, I turned the monologue into a kind of cartoon.
Writing is usually something you do on your own. If you're lucky enough to have your work published, you go through that process very much on your own, too. Of course, many people do invaluable work editing, publishing, distributing, and marketing your work — and I'm extremely grateful for them — but as a writer you can feel very exposed.
Being published as part of a series of books, on the other hand, alongside the likes of Roman, Philippa Perry, and Alain de Botton, has been a total delight. I strongly recommend that all authors try it at least once — but only if they can find somebody like Roman.
More from John-Paul Flintoff:
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John-Paul Flintoff is an author, broadcaster, and journalist. He has written several books, including Sew Your Own, in which he investigated sweatshops and global resource shortages. He lives in London. How to Change the World is his latest book.
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