Very Happy New Year from Sophie

Very Happy New Year to you!

Monkey Kingdom by Alastair Fothergill for DisneyNature

See the official trailer for my friend Alastair's new film

Hot Air Ballooning at Luxor in Egypt, from my perspective ~

Like thousands of British tourists, I too have been hot air ballooning at Luxor while on holiday in Egypt.

It was a fantastic experience, not least because so many balloons went up at once.

I had no idea that there would be 19 passengers in the basket that hung beneath each balloon. We had two pilots, one of whom was British. The equipment looked brand new.

It's a massive set-up with a number of different companies offering daily trips at dawn. It is pretty chilly when you set off, or it is in February.

Some balloons went high, hoping to catch air currents which would take them over the Valley of the Kings.

We were taken low over the sugar cane fields, which I found both fascinating and more enjoyable than flying high.

Most of the other balloons flew at some altitude, the wind taking them over the fields, away from the archaeological sites and majority of ancient temples.

We flew over Luxor and the River Nile. It was beautiful.

You could look into the top floor of people's houses. I was fascinated to see that they kept chickens up on there, often with a great deal of rubbish.

To my relief, we landed safely in a field of stubble. You do think, when you climb into the basket, that up that you might not return alive. By the grace of God, I did.

Sophie Neville in Egypt

sophie@sophieneville.co.uk

A message of hope for 2013 ~

This is a page from my diary of February 1992 ~ nearly twenty-one years ago. It was the day I can truly say that I started to recover from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I was camping in the mountains of South Africa with my friend, Rebecca Hunter, who was recovering from injuries caused by a terrible road accident.

I hope you can read the original ~

Having been a teacher, Rebecca went on to write numerous wonderful books for children ~
click on: Books by Rebecca Hunter

Alastair Fothergill's new DisneyNature movie about chimpanzees

The official trailer for DisneyNature's 'Chimpanzee' ~ a wildlife documentary

Coming out nationwide in the UK on Friday 3rd May

The latest DisneyNature feature-length epic movie Chimpanzee from wildlife writer/director Alastair Fothergill (one of my friends who appears in the book 'Funnily Enough') opened to great reviews in the United States this year, and is due to reach our cinema screens in the United Kingdom in spring 2013.

It is narrated by comedy actor and producer Tim Allen, the voice of 'Buzz Lightyear' in Toy Story, and star of the hit U.S. TV sitcom Home Improvement.

For the Cineworld website, please click here

How to get a Free Kindle app ~

'Ride the Wings of Morning' is the story of my travels in Southern Africa, available as a paperback or on Kindle - where many of the illustrations are in full colour.

click on either

Amazon.co.uk  ~  Amazon.com ~ Amazon.de ~ Amazon.fr ~ Amazon.it ~ Amazon.es

‘But I don’t have a Kindle!’

Don’t worry. You can easily add a free Kindle reading app to your PC, laptop, Android or Apple device and see the illustrations in colour:

‘How?’

If you are in the UK

Click here:

If you live in Africa, you want to download the Kindle app direct from Amazon.com

Click here:

And choose which device you want to download the app to.

All the Kindle reading apps are free.

The sequel to Funnily Enough is out on Kindle and in paperback ~

Ride the Wings of Morning ~

Illustrated hardcover and paperbacks are now available from Lulu.com

....a gorgeous book. To me it is not about travel but about life. I really enjoyed it. Twice.

Some parts, I have read three times!

~ A review by Peter Bell ~

Ride the Wings of Morning (lovely title) is a terrific sequel to Sophie's marvellous Funnily Enough; further following her life of extraordinary exploits and adventures, now in southern Africa. Some horrific, most delightful, but all fascinating and very amusingly told by way of correspondence to and from her more conventional sisters. Her parents and many friends from Africa also feature as do a veritable profusion of Sophie's joyful and individual style of sketches, drawings and paintings that have become even more assured as time progressed. Many are brilliant! (Especially her splendid cartoons!)

Sophie has a wonderful knack of inclusion of her readers in all her writing. She is very observant, particularly of the absurd, the ridiculous and comic juxtapositions as well as the mundane and it shows in the great warmth, engaging honesty and infectious humour in her writing. The reader is privileged that she shares this somewhat maverick part of her life in which she gives so much of herself. Again! I was ever more captivated by this book but in a slightly different way to Funnily Enough. A truly fascinating read from much obviously painstaking work.

Only a full read of this marvellous 542-page book can do it the justice it deserves that no review of mine can hope to achieve. Unplug the phone, shut out the English 'summer' and indulge yourself with Sophie in the warmth of her true life in a world so far apart from your own!

She is a uniquely talented and individual person and this extraordinary work is to be deeply savoured and enjoyed. Tops on any scale of hugs and highly recommended by me as one of many here. The printed editions are to keep for ever.

Thank you so much, Sophie. Thanks also to Perry, Tamsin, and 'Mum and Dad'. I really look forward with great enthusiasm to the promised next instalment. Quite lovely!

Also available to order: ISBN-13: 978-1475244472

I had the most amazing riding holiday in South Africa...

South Africa 1991

21^st March ~

‘I wish you could stay longer.’

‘So do I,’ I said, as we walked round to heave my luggage into a waiting car.

‘Sophie, I wanted to ask: would you like to consider becoming my partner in the horse safaris?’

‘Really?’

‘Really.’

‘I’d love to, Sarah-Jane but I can’t. I’ve too many commitments.’

‘Uncommit.’

‘It’s not that easy, I’m half way through my contract with the BBC.’

‘London will be horrid,’ she insisted.

‘Yes, but,’ I said, leaning against the car, trying to explain, ‘I’ve agreed to direct a long-running drama series.’

‘I know.’

‘It’s such a good opportunity. I can’t turn it down.’

‘I would have loved your help here.’

‘Rebecca might come. She’s a fantastic cook.’ Sarah-Jane and I pulled ourselves up onto the boulders so that we could see her little camp below with the horses milling around in the kraal. I tried hard not to cry.

‘It’s good that you came.’

‘Yes, it has been wonderful, much more than a holiday.’ I stood looking out across the vast, wild country through which we’d ridden. It was still early in the morning and quite cold. The mountains were standing dark against the rays of the rising sun. A huge grief welled up inside me; I didn’t want to go at all. Tears started streaming down my face.

‘Sarah-Jane.’ A voice came out of the darkness. ‘You left your revolver under the front seat of my Land Cruiser.’ The Game Warden had come to look for her. Time for me to go.

‘Goodbye, Sarah-Jane. And thank you for such an amazing time. I’m sure things will work out.’

‘Come back as soon as you can.’

‘I will. Goodbye.’ I drove off towards Johannesburg and an aeroplane that would take me back to what I thought I had to do.

At this point my life became very busy indeed - until 9th April, when my diary begins. The diary of my encounter with Chronic Fatigue. 

Is emigration a viable treatment for Chronic Fatigue?

FEBRUARY ~ Out of the mire and clay

1^st February ~

No. No. No! Mum is making me give a talk to the W.I. (the Brimpsford Women’s Institute) with an otter. Tonight. She’s double-booked and already dressed in a safari suit, hurrying off to appear as an amateur herpetologist in a film about iguanas. She knows nothing about reptiles, but when I challenged her earlier she looked at me as if I was imbecilic and said she was acting the part. Well, she’s a very stressed part. ‘Don’t tell me I’m stressed.’

Now I’m stressed. Distressed. I’ve bought a ticket to Johannesburg and leave in ten days’ time. 'The Lord’s plans are irrevocable!' But I’ve decided a certain amount of stress is probably a good thing. It stops one turning into an iguana.

2^nd February ~ The ladies of the Women’s Institute were adorable and laughed at all the right places in my talk entitled ‘Having to live with Otters’. Luckily the Chairwoman was a Swallows and Amazons fan, thrilled to give me a fee of £30. I need the money.

I’m going to have to streamline my life; make it simpler. Epicurus said, ‘Contentment consists not in great wealth, but in few wants.’ I’ve decided to cut my outgoings right down to the minimum and separate myself from my possessions. This has got to be healthy. I want to do more with less. I need to fit myself into a suitcase anyway. Pippa is going to rent my flat with everything in it and look after the repairs, maintenance and insurance. A very sweet trainee production assistant called Hope is moving in to keep her company. She comes from Nigeria.

It looks as if I won’t need a new car after all. Perry wants to borrow my tramp mobile, as Tamzin insists on calling it, and will keep it on the road until I come back. To Tamzin, I’ve bequeathed my dead sheep. This is her name for my sheepskin under-blanket, which she has been longing to try out. I’ll keep clothes and things in my room at my parents’ house for future use. My main expense now is decent health insurance.

3^rd February ~ ‘Are you the one who makes the hawk soar and spread its wings to the south?’ Robin found this in the book of Job. It’s taken completely out of context.... or is it? He said that he’s not at all happy that I’ve decided to go to South Africa but cheered up when I suggested he should come on a horse safari. He loves travelling, being detached from responsibilities.

I found a Canadian film crew in our house. Dad said he was sweating with embarrassment as they had spent the morning filming Mum in the kitchen with the otters leaping around in the sink (together with the washing up), making their own way into the ’fridge (which is always chaotic) and breaking eggs onto the floor (which is filthy). By the time I arrived they were filming Mum, bum in the air, trying to extract Jims from underneath a chest of drawers. I took a cup of tea to the continuity girl. ‘Are you off to film any other interesting animals?’

‘Animals? Aw no. This is a series about great British eccentrics.’ I don’t think my parents are aware of this.

The Producer asked me if I could possibly keep the cockerels quiet for a while. I’ve regressed to being a film runner. One thing I gained a great deal of experience in at the BBC was asking people to stop making a noise: I could stop pneumatic drills drilling, chain-saws sawing, Rastas from playing basket ball – once I even stopped the traffic going down Bayswater Road, but could I do anything about the cockerels? I found the only thing that worked was letting them out to scratch around in the field. Disaster. I went to shut them up later, when it was beginning to get dark, and found Terry running around looking flustered. There were feathers everywhere. Albert had disappeared. Mum was very upset. She was furious with me and spent hours wandering up and down to see if he was hiding anywhere, but I’ve got a feeling we won’t find the body and am wracked with guilt.

4^th February ~ Big packing-up session in London. Good-bye sofa, good-bye desk, good-bye television. Good-bye Television. I feel right about all this. Have inner peace. What really matters is what happens within us, not to us.

5^th February ~ I’ve a funny feeling I know who ate Albert. I found an awful lot of feathers in the haystack where Jake has a hidey-hole.

Mum has handed in her resignation as a J.P. after thirteen years’ service. It has been very hard for her to let go but I’m glad. She has enough to cope with in life without the addition of draining voluntary work. An invitation has arrived inviting her to attend the International Otter Convention in India, which is exciting, and she’s looking forward to it already. She’s passionate about conservation, and drawing on her skills as an actress, is brilliant at conveying the message to others, especially children. We feel she should concentrate on this and let others deal with delinquent youths. The delinquent pet – Jake, has been granted parole.

6^th February ~ Alastair is off to the South Pole to film penguins in a thermal zoot-suit. James isn’t envious at all. He gets seasick. He says he’d rather come with me, but isn’t that thrilled about the idea of watching rhinoceros from horseback. I am. Alastair thinks that I would feel isolated living way out in the bush and could get very lonely, but it can’t be lonelier than being ill. I can cope with that.

Tamzin said that Jonnie hasn’t noticed the dead sheep yet despite the fact that it makes a huge lump under the bottom sheet on her side of the bed. She gave me some riding boots, which are too small for her, in part exchange. Dad has given me a pair of binoculars and Mum has found me some old insect repellent. Granny keeps ringing to say Good-bye. I went to see Daisy. Mary-Dieu has never once thanked me for looking after her baby, but it doesn’t matter. She isn’t cross any more. In fact she was very funny and said she’d take the nightshift when I have kids. I hadn’t thought of that. I must drive her crazy, but she loves me. Loving despite of is more precious than loving because of.

Mum and Dad went out to dinner and arrived back with the prettiest little hen you have ever seen. She is to be a girlfriend for Terry. I hope he’ll be nice to her.

7^th February ~ ‘What has been the purpose of this time Lord? This season of sickness in my life?’

Will I only be able to see the answer clearly from a distance?

I’d been going so fast. My days had just been filled with lists of things to get done. I’d fallen into the trap of putting the merely urgent before the important. It’s so easy to let our perspective become quite limited. We think our bodies so significant, and they are because we need to be healthy to operate effectively, but how much more vital is our spirit? We have eternity ahead of us. In our society we spend years educating our intellect and training our brains, and yet most parents are shy, scared of developing their children’s spiritual understanding. They see it as ‘Religious Education’, which is either unimportant or something that must be tackled by teachers at school.

An Texan girl once told me that the word Bible stands for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. B.I.B.L.E. We have the Maker’s Manual, but like most instruction books few people ever read it. Until things go wrong. Then it’s, ‘Help, I can’t understand this. Nothing’s working properly. Where did you put the instruction manual?’ Somehow we never find the time to read it. Well, I’ve had time.

I’ve learnt that, if Earth is our training ground, then we must expect to have to undergo trials here so that our spiritual muscle and resistance can be built up. If our body is in bad shape a virus will knock us sideways; if our spirit is in bad shape disasters will hammer us. Life is going to be full of tribulation. We’re always going to need the strength and confidence, the wisdom and understanding that lie the other side of suffering.

8^th February ~

‘Yes, but I would really appreciate more of an explanation.’

I was given it. Jesus said, ‘Simon, Simon, (Sophie, Sophie) behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren.’ Well that’s what it’s for, so we can ‘strengthen and build up others.’ That is my commission. ‘To comfort others with the comfort I’ve been given.'

How does the Prayer of St Francis go? That we should seek not so much to be understood as to understand. Make me a channel of your peace.

9^th February ~ I’ve packed my bags and I’m ready to go. I’m taking the suede chaps I had made in Farnham, a sketchbook and a hammock. Granny rang to say, ‘Smell Africa for me.’

10^th February ~ Fly to South Africa.

I went to see how the chickens were getting on just before I left. I opened up the bedroom side of the hutch and found two perfect white eggs. It was so exciting to find them, like a symbol of hope.

Tamzin made me a special Going Away lunch and drove me to the airport. I didn’t feel at all strong; very shaky in fact, with a head full of cottonwool and rags, but I staggered onto the plane and let everything roll over me. I flew high on wings like an eagle; a steppe buzzard migrating south.