O n the eve of its relaunch, it’s time to reveal the truth about The Banana Road.
The Great Piglet Escape
The whole truth vs creative license
I ’ve been proofreading The Banana Road in readiness for its republication and after so many years away from the island, it’s incredible to be reminded of everything that happened to us there.
I can understand why, at the time it was first published, a chance remark suggested that someone assumed I had made some of the story up, or in travel writing parlance, that I had used creative licence. So, in the interests of open and transparent reporting, ahead of its new life under our direct control, I feel readers now deserve the truth about The Banana Road:
Every single event narrated in The Banana Road is the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
There are no embellishments, no exaggerations, no creative license, just an accurate retelling of every bizarre thing that happened and every unbelievable character we met, including Whiskas, our amazing, odd, and occasionally evil cat.
I understand how difficult it could be to accept that this tale of frankly unbelievable things was really happening to us, particularly if you knew us or knew of us when we lived on Tenerife. We chose not to broadcast what was happening to us at the time for reasons that become clear in the book. But just because something wasn’t known at the time, doesn’t mean it never happened.
Magnets for bizarre incidents
F riends and family have often remarked that odd things always seem to happen to me and Jack, like the time we had a run-in with an aggressive macaque on the path to the Teluga Tujuh seven waterfalls in Langkawi; or the time we helped to foil the great escape of four black piglets on El Hierro; or when a drunken policeman in Chile tried to bully us into giving his mate a lift.
Bizarre things just seem to make a beeline for us.
As far as we’re concerned, the simple explanation for why that is, is that we invariably leave the confines of our base and explore far and wide. Never ones to spend our days lying on a beach or by a pool, we’re inveterate explorers, always eager for the next adventure. Anyone who does the same will recognise the truth in what I’m saying here, just move out of your comfort zone, away from your resort or home base, get out and explore. I guarantee you will find something unexpected.
For us, moving away from everything we knew to buy a house on a golf course, in the middle of banana plantations at the foot of Spain’s highest mountain was always going to lead to odd incidents, we just didn’t realise quite how odd they would turn out to be.
It’s a story that deserves to be told, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
The Banana Road is back on sale at 25% discount. Buy now
