| Over
the past ten years I have travelled through Australia,
Mexico, North America, Spain, Ireland, South America,
Cuba, New Zealand and Slovenia. In 1997 I started working
on a series of travel books charting my adventures in
these countries. They tell of my experiences and of the
colourful characters I met along the way. The reason I
started writing these books was to show people just how
much fun and adventurous travelling can be, and how it
is not as dangerous as many might perceive. I also wanted
to show that travelling alone need not be as lonely as
you might think. These books are a perfect example of
that. Another reason is that I have a terrible memory,
and so at least this way when I'm old and grey, sitting
in my rocking chair with my pipe, slippers and incontinence
pants, I'll be able to read my books and think, blimey
did I do that?
To
the End of the World and Back was the first of these
books to be published.
In
the summer of 2003 I hiked solo for 280 miles across Ireland,
from Wexford to Donegal, in aid asthma research. Visit
the walk for asthma link
for more info and an article I wrote about it.
In
keeping with the emerging interest in ebooks, My third
title is an e-book story of my second ever long solo journey.
It tells of how, as a novice traveller, I set off on an
amazingly profound and comical four-month journey around
the whole of Mexico. My two paperbacks, To the End of
the World and Back and Hot Footing Around the Emerald
Isle have also been released as e-books complete with
over a hundred full colour photographs from each journey,
and Hot Footing now also contains 18 new articles from
return journeys to the Emerald Isle.
My
latest paperback is a collaboration with Douglas Elwell
called Mysterious
World: Ireland, a lavishly illustrated history book/travel
guide focusing on the history and ancient mysteries of
Ireland. Learn about the fairies, giants, leprechauns,
ancient kings and the many Celtic deities that have all
left their indelible mark upon Ireland's culture and traditions.
Find out where many of the country's ancient megalithic
structures, fairy trees, raths and other sacred places
lie, and read what the archeologists and tour guides won't
tell you, the legends and folklore behind them. For example,
if you take the tour of Newgrange, the guide will not
tell you that according to Celtic mythology this, the
greatest of all the burial mounds of Ireland, was once
the fairy palace of the Dagda, the father god of the Tuatha
de Danann, a magical race who once inhabited Ireland and
were defeated by the Celts and driven from the land into
the underworld to become known as the Sidhe (fairy folk)
of Ireland.
As
well as writing books I have also written for Backpacker
Ireland, Walking World Ireland, Mysterious World USA,
Take your Car UK, the Slovenia Times newspaper, Hackwriters
and the Basingstoke Gazette. If you would like to read
the articles published so far then please visit the Articles
link above. Please email me if you would like to offer
me work, commissioned or not.
For
a list of destinations and subjects on potential articles
for your publication please click here. All work considered
If
you have read either of my books and would like to submit
a review then please email it to me on the above address.
All good reviews will be published on the review page
of this website.
Click
here to read other reviews.
During
my years of travelling I've met many talented people:
musicians, writers. To this end I've created the Talented
Travellers page dedicated to these people who I feel
will be very famous one day.
Does
it ever end? Now I'm doing website
design. If you would like a website designed then
visit the Web
Design link above for more info. Email me if you would
like more info or prices. All work considered.
Email
me on: travelwriter@ian-middleton.co.uk |
