It’s only words and words are all I have……
A message to the reader.
Some histories, novels and plays often start with a list of characters so, as in some sense this too is a history or possibly even a novel, you might expect a similar list of characters with a variety of information about who, what ,where and sort of when before reading the body of the text.
But the names, personalities and attributes of those humans, animals and others who take part in the narratives you are about to embark on are only possibilities, some more concrete & formed than others. Layers of realities, fantasies & imaginations.
Such a list (which would be headed ‘Dramatis Personae’ on the title pages of a play) might be skimmed through, read in detail or lightly skipped over to arrive immediately at the beginning, but that is not at this stage altogether possible. Perhaps at a later date.......
A few relevant facts about myself before we begin.
My name is William Wade Wilkins. I was born in Australia sometime in the 4th decade of the 20th century, my parents were never clear on the year of my birth but certain that I was conceived on the summer solstice. I have spent much of my life travelling in all parts of the globe. I view this planet as a whole as my home.
To pretend that I am the ‘author’ of this set of narratives would be false or at least slightly untrue. At most I am a compiler, chronicler and editor of a collection of documents and sources including diaries, journals, letters, articles in newspapers, magazines, graffiti, official and not so official reports, court records, discs, web sites, blogs, note books, address books, recorded interviews on tape, CD, film, video, hard drives etc. in a range of media, hand writing, script, languages and texts. To name but a few.
Some of it gathered in what is usually known as ‘waking’ and some in what is commonly called ‘dreaming’……
Recounted by a number of narrators, story tellers & authors.
How I came to be in possession of such a variety of sources containing threads and narratives interweaving and overlapping to give a picture of the events you may soon engage with is not at this time particularly useful to share with you. Enough to say that the source material arrived over a number of years and via a variety of different routes as outlined above. Mostly it came to me while travelling around this extraordinary planet we live on.
It would also be misleading to pretend that I have had any formal training in the necessary variety of skills & techniques of writing narratives or telling stories whether fictional or factual. I apologise in advance for any shortcomings in my abilities as a creative writer, narrator or storyteller, though the nature of the material I have transcribed has inspired me to reach levels of narration and creative communication I could only have dreamed of.
And of course none of this would be possible without the patient collaboration, support & almost unquestioning friendship of my cousin Gordon, who slowly & meticulously has transcribed, compiled and edited the words that have come to me into the shapes of sentences, paragraphs & chapters.
Finally, due to something one might call ‘fate’ or ‘synchronicity’, the sources for this collection of tales, characters and places came to me and me alone so I have chosen, possibly foolishly, as I now realise the amount of work & time it has taken, to organise this archive of material into the form of a book which is also narrated by my cousin Gordon.
It is a document of events and narratives of such an unusual nature that it seemed to me it must be shared with others.
But enough of myself and my travails as a literary composer……. .
Let the stories begin.