Ask the Author: Tim Butcher
Answered Questions (74)
Tim Butcher
Jason will be thrilled you are going to tackle his book. He is passionate about DRC, one the most knowledgeable sources on the country currently. I had not quite heard the term `African Science’ but the scenario you lay out is certainly familiar: a belief system so strong it changes expectations/behaviours/actions. I have to say I found my Liberian adventure illuminating in this regard, this belief system (I would prefer to call it `faith’) underscoring so much of life in the more remote areas. Best, TimB
Tim Butcher
Dear Michael - thank you for taking time to both read and publicly review Chasing the Devil. It is the source of so many cherished memories. As you yourself have experienced what off-piste life is like upline in Liberia, you might recognise what I mean when I say it has a calming sense of energy about it: the process of just living is so demanding, it leaves little energy over for anything else. I am writing two books at the moment, chasing my tail (if not my devil), as the twin helix often becomes tangled. Onwards, TimB
Tim Butcher
Liam - no need to qualify your review of my book The Trigger. No book works for every reader and clearly mine did not work for you. I liked your review for two reasons: first, it was an honest appraisal and second, it got me thinking.
Princip is a remarkable historical figure, one with enormous impact yet with precious little definition. He ghosts into all of our lives yet he left no body of conventional historical evidence, no corpus of writing, no speeches, no diaries, no correspondence, no minutes, no artwork, no photographs. Those looking for a conventional biography framed through conventional historiography will, like you, be disappointed by The Trigger. For that I am sorry - no writer wishes to disappoint.
But that is precisely what got my curiosity up. A child's hand might ball into a disappointed fist when trying to touch a cloud but that does not stop the cloud from being able to create a storm. And I guess that is what The Trigger was about: recognising this teenager created a storm yet being forced to triangulate him using place, time, resonance with events that would also take place in the same space.
Thank you again for your candour and engagement. In this age when we face of blizzard of temptations for our attention, that you read my book is honour itself.
Wishing you good reading, TimB
Princip is a remarkable historical figure, one with enormous impact yet with precious little definition. He ghosts into all of our lives yet he left no body of conventional historical evidence, no corpus of writing, no speeches, no diaries, no correspondence, no minutes, no artwork, no photographs. Those looking for a conventional biography framed through conventional historiography will, like you, be disappointed by The Trigger. For that I am sorry - no writer wishes to disappoint.
But that is precisely what got my curiosity up. A child's hand might ball into a disappointed fist when trying to touch a cloud but that does not stop the cloud from being able to create a storm. And I guess that is what The Trigger was about: recognising this teenager created a storm yet being forced to triangulate him using place, time, resonance with events that would also take place in the same space.
Thank you again for your candour and engagement. In this age when we face of blizzard of temptations for our attention, that you read my book is honour itself.
Wishing you good reading, TimB
Tim Butcher
I hope it is OK but I have written to you privately on this. Cheers, Vee
Tim Butcher
I share your sense of foreboding: a corporate leviathan like Amazon looms over so much of our lives (including this website, as you point out), it feels intimidating, unaccountable and utterly disinterested in the individual, instead focussed on the crowd/mass/cohort.
The answer to your question feels therefore counterintuitive: in theory, buying a Kindle version of a book gives the biggest cut to the author. Because of the way e-books work (no storage costs, no shelfing, no couriers etc) the contractual arrangement gives something like 25 per cent of the sale price to the author for a Kindle, more like 12 per cent of the sale price for a hard copy book.
But you will spot the important term there is `sale price’. Amazon discount kindle prices to stimulate sales’ volume so the author ends up with 25 per cent of a fairy cake, not a birthday cake, if you follow a clumsy metaphor.
And the whole publishing industry is based on author weakness and author trust: authors are so weak they cannot hold publishers/distributors/booksellers to account so can never be sure how many units are actually sold, instead they are left having to trust the numbers produced by third parties who do not work for the writer but for the distributor.
In short, I would encourage any buyer not to buy from an online leviathan but from a small, independent bookshop/website. The earnings for the author in cash terms might not be measurably larger, but the health of the wider bibliophile world is hugely reliant on that lower-level book ecosystem being strong, vibrant and alive.
The answer to your question feels therefore counterintuitive: in theory, buying a Kindle version of a book gives the biggest cut to the author. Because of the way e-books work (no storage costs, no shelfing, no couriers etc) the contractual arrangement gives something like 25 per cent of the sale price to the author for a Kindle, more like 12 per cent of the sale price for a hard copy book.
But you will spot the important term there is `sale price’. Amazon discount kindle prices to stimulate sales’ volume so the author ends up with 25 per cent of a fairy cake, not a birthday cake, if you follow a clumsy metaphor.
And the whole publishing industry is based on author weakness and author trust: authors are so weak they cannot hold publishers/distributors/booksellers to account so can never be sure how many units are actually sold, instead they are left having to trust the numbers produced by third parties who do not work for the writer but for the distributor.
In short, I would encourage any buyer not to buy from an online leviathan but from a small, independent bookshop/website. The earnings for the author in cash terms might not be measurably larger, but the health of the wider bibliophile world is hugely reliant on that lower-level book ecosystem being strong, vibrant and alive.
Tim Butcher
My advice is: be nosey, be curious, be observant, never forget to be respectful, tactful and grateful for the opportunity to gatecrash other lives. Never take no for an answer. And in our shrinking world, there are no new places left to visit but human behaviour being what it so wonderfully is – dynamic, restless – there are new experiences to be had. Enjoy the journey. And finally, as a wise old foreign correspondent told me when I asked a similar question way back when I was starting out; what is the most important advice you can share? The answer, after some moments of reflection, was unexpected but surprisingly good: don’t miss breakfast.
My advice is: be nosey, be curious, be observant, never forget to be respectful, tactful and grateful for the opportunity to gatecrash other lives. Never take no for an answer. And in our shrinking world, there are no new places left to visit but human behaviour being what it so wonderfully is – dynamic, restless – there are new experiences to be had. Enjoy the journey. And finally, as a wise old foreign correspondent told me when I asked a similar question way back when I was starting out; what is the most important advice you can share? The answer, after some moments of reflection, was unexpected but surprisingly good: don’t miss breakfast.
Tim Butcher
You raise a sensitive topic – whether the trip at the spine of Blood River created problems for any of the people in the Congo whom I encountered, so many of who helped me. The answer to the best of my knowledge, is no. I was able to tread lightly, not to antagonise any potential hostile attitudes, nor create targets on the backs of those mentioned in the book. I say `to the best of my knowledge’ because, as you will appreciate, communication is not easy to some of the areas I ventured through. But I can say this with certainty: of the people I have been able to keep in touch with from the trip, nobody has ever reported any long-standing ill effects. Over the years – and in some cases it did take years – I was able as a token of my thanks to get a copy of the book to the central characters from the journey: the bike guides in Katanga, the pygmy community leader, the river expert near Kisangani etc. I leave it to you to decide whether from their perspective that was a good thing or not!
Tim Butcher
I do see Covid in those terms, as proof of what happens when humanity overreaches itself, a natural correction to the excesses not so much of overpopulation, more of overestimation of humanity’s worth. The casual way humans rub up against nature, despoiling soils, deforesting habitats, reducing diversity occasionally comes with a price. Covid is that price, the price for blind complacency at humankind’s primacy.
The driving features of humanity’s progress are too often forgotten, the importance of sharing, community, communal values, togetherness. Covid will only be defeated if we recall and revitalise those features. We are being forced to do it to some extent: no longer enslaved to office hierarchy, equalised by the shared experience of being forced to stay at home, our pyjama-clad lower halves dodging the all-seeing eyes of our Zoom screens. But our faith in infinite, eternal choice, the sacred cow of market-driven economic growth, has to be challenged now, our choices are more limited: Which friends? Which family members? Which behaviours? Which things do we do without? A society that has forgotten the cardinal importance of the us, enshrining instead the false idol of the me, has led to the inequalities and greed that delivered us to the virus. It is only if we re-engage with we that we will recover. The virus recognises not the high walls of the rich man.
The driving features of humanity’s progress are too often forgotten, the importance of sharing, community, communal values, togetherness. Covid will only be defeated if we recall and revitalise those features. We are being forced to do it to some extent: no longer enslaved to office hierarchy, equalised by the shared experience of being forced to stay at home, our pyjama-clad lower halves dodging the all-seeing eyes of our Zoom screens. But our faith in infinite, eternal choice, the sacred cow of market-driven economic growth, has to be challenged now, our choices are more limited: Which friends? Which family members? Which behaviours? Which things do we do without? A society that has forgotten the cardinal importance of the us, enshrining instead the false idol of the me, has led to the inequalities and greed that delivered us to the virus. It is only if we re-engage with we that we will recover. The virus recognises not the high walls of the rich man.
Tim Butcher
How to break an author’s heart: to hear of sales lost through a glitch. If only Amazon was named after a real river like the Congo, then things would no doubt work better. I will try to get to the bottom of this and thank you for being so helpful in pointing it out. Off to nurse my wounded heart…..TimB
Tim Butcher
Thrilled to hear that you enjoyed Blood River and that it `smelled right’ to someone who knows the reality and challenge of modern life in DRC/Congo. Institutional memory is what makes societies progress: we learn from mistakes. The lack of it in the Congo (massacres passing unrecorded, unaccounted for, justice ignored) is one of the factors that keeps that country flatlining or worse in terms of development. Hope you enjoyed The Trigger, my Sarajevo/Bosnia/Balkan book. Best, TimB
Tim Butcher
Hi Joe – just saw your queries on GoodReads about a kindle version of Chasing the Devil. I wonder if you can make this page and it leads you where you want to go:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chasing-Devi...
might be best to communicate by email. timbobutcher@gmail.com reaches me. Best, TimB
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chasing-Devi...
might be best to communicate by email. timbobutcher@gmail.com reaches me. Best, TimB
Tim Butcher
Thanks for bringing to the film to my attention. I have to admit it had passed me by. I will watch it with great interest. Thanks again and, in this time of Covid, wishing you good health and rich reading, TimB
Tim Butcher
Dear Anita – thank you for a such a great message, a lift in this time of Covid. An audiobook of Chasing the Devil was made. I was unavailable for narration so the job went to an actor. It sounded great. The rights may have changed recently as I cannot see it on Amazon/Audible.com or Audibook. Sorry for the disappointment. I have chased up the publisher to see what the situation is and will let you know via the message service on GoodReads. In the meantime, you might consider the audio version of my latest book The Trigger which is available. I narrated the UK-released edition but an American actor did the US-released edition. Cheers again, TimB
Tim Butcher
Good idea. I must start looking for a good route that I can use to link those ancient African kingdoms. The great novel She by Rider Haggard is based in eSwatini (nee Swaziland). Trying to think of a similarly powerful book representing Lesotho. I will keep thinking.....
Tim Butcher
We are not such sticklers for question marks. I guess your words count more as a comment than a question but in this Time of Covid I'll take reader feedback whichever way it comes. Lesotho is another reason to visit Africa, an outlier in the sky that defies the cliches of easy continental categorisation. It really is special.
Tim Butcher
I am so sorry for any disappointment, Apratim, but the truth is I am finding this latest project hugely challenging, often daunting, sometimes overwhelming. Your interest and engagement is one of the reasons I am keeping going. Thank you so much to you and all my wonderful readers. You make it all worthwhile. TimB
Tim Butcher
Thanks for the question, William. For a general history I would recommend The Balkans by Misha Glenny. If you have the time to consider Rebecca West's magisterial Black Lamb, Grey Falcon I would urge you to give it serious thought. For the Bosnian War I would suggest The Death of Yugoslavia by Allan Little and Laura Silber. I cannot say I rate a single biog of Milosevic. He is an ephemeral figure well triangulated through other references (DoY being one good corner of any triangle). Happy hunting, TimB
Tim Butcher
Thanks for the question, Ana,
There are a wealth of books on Africa that I have enjoyed and learned from. Here are three favourites:
History – King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochshcild, a history book that regularly blurs the border with dramatic fiction
Fiction – An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah, short stories so perfect as whole they capture post-colonial Africa’s double-edged muddle of hope and despair
Memoir – Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, a dynastic novel but written with so much authority drawn from the author’s own life in/out of Ethiopia.
There are a wealth of books on Africa that I have enjoyed and learned from. Here are three favourites:
History – King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochshcild, a history book that regularly blurs the border with dramatic fiction
Fiction – An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah, short stories so perfect as whole they capture post-colonial Africa’s double-edged muddle of hope and despair
Memoir – Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, a dynastic novel but written with so much authority drawn from the author’s own life in/out of Ethiopia.
Tim Butcher
Dear Pancha Chandra – my advice would be for him to find courage. Brexit’s appeal is premised on fear; fear of Brussels, fear of a European federalist conspiracy, fear Britain has lost contol and must wrest it back. Britain needs leaders who do not give into such fear, who see Europe as an opportunity not a threat, who have confidence in a British nation that is both strong enough in its own identity and brave enough to recognise that strength can come from alliance with others. Our family lives thrive as a union. Our working lives grow strong through union with partners, clients, equals. All nations are unions. Mine happens to be a union of English, Scots, Welsh, Ulstermen but the common message for all nations has to be `together we thrive – alone we wither’. If only our leaders, not only in Brexit Britain but Trump-tied America and chauvinistic Russia and totalitarian China and Modi-mad India would recognise this.
Tim Butcher
As President Abraham Lincoln famously said: `I’ve learned not to believe everything I see on the internet’. The city of Kinshasa functions, as it did when I travelled through for the Blood River journey in 2004. Not sure how many tourists visit but the urban population grows every year. Public services are bumpy (barely functional criminal justice system, poker-like taxation system of receiving claims and then bidding them down, a health system where hospitals have locked patients in wards until their bill is paid, etc) but ATM machines work, your cellphone will ring and the internet looks as anywhere else in the global village.
Yet I refer to the city’s `illusion of normalcy’. A visitor can reasonably believe that the country must function well enough if the capital does, only to be disappointed. River travel is unreliable, the road network parlous and the rule of law fragile. The world’s second biggest (and getting bigger) ebola outbreak currently in the east of the country has not been contained because of central government’s failure to provide a base modicum of control.
The country remains as magnificent as ever, the people as richly talented. Yet sadly the triumph of disappointment over potential still prevails. I meet Congolese every day in Cape Town and this remains their commonly-held view.
Yet I refer to the city’s `illusion of normalcy’. A visitor can reasonably believe that the country must function well enough if the capital does, only to be disappointed. River travel is unreliable, the road network parlous and the rule of law fragile. The world’s second biggest (and getting bigger) ebola outbreak currently in the east of the country has not been contained because of central government’s failure to provide a base modicum of control.
The country remains as magnificent as ever, the people as richly talented. Yet sadly the triumph of disappointment over potential still prevails. I meet Congolese every day in Cape Town and this remains their commonly-held view.
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