In June 2019 I managed to complete a 166 page draft book on the NIMR Building a copy of which has been deposited in the Wellcome Library, opposite Euston Station. This to allow anyone else interested in the history of the building to make a good start on further research. Also copies have been given to those people who helped me most. Since then further searching has produced more information. Key missing data includes a lack of pictures on the original construction after ground and first floors of the building, including the type and number of cranes used. I hope somewhere there are photos in a snapshot album which may be brought to my attention.
Late in 2019 I set out to try to write a further non-fiction book on Planet Earth which has been my home for over 70 years. This is being written to help my understanding of climate change pollution and other issues facing the world in the future. On climate change there appears to be little middle ground in the debate. I have bought various books stating the case for and against and I have found the reviews for these books on Amazon are very polarised either 5 or 1 star.
In February 2020 I stopped work on this draft book in favour of trying to record history as it happens on the Coronavirus pandemic. Unlike reading fiction one cannot go to the last page of the book to find out what happens.
I am comparing the effects of the pandemic to the book Wild Swans where as one turned the pages I kept saying to myself it cannot get any worse. It did! From March to 2020 to August 2020 I reckon the world is about 45% through Wild Swans.
In June 2020 ten years after I started writing I wrote my last post on fiction writing on the TIPM website as link below. I may do a further post in January or June 2021 recording my progress on my CV book.
Overall I found fiction easy to write from 2010 to 2019. Non-fiction is much more difficult with various practical issues. On the NIMR building looking back into the past scarcity of information was a problem although most of what I found was true. On Planet Earth and Coronavirus there is far too much information and deciding what is relevant, true or false now and likely to be so in the future is a material problem. The Coronavirus book writing is keeping me busy which is good in lockdown.
I wish you as writers, readers or publishers all the best in your efforts. Enjoy yourselves, have fun and take care in these strange times.
Douglas Burcham
