Michael PS Taylor MA: About
For reasons that I do not always comprehend the how or why of, I have spent the best part of 60 years crisscrossing much of the globe. I am not quite sure how, but I worked in, and for, the oil, defence, logistics and telecoms sectors. I am also equally unsure, why I was writing bids, looking at skills and building teams for some of the huge infrastructure projects that were a feature of the times.
Until my mid-teens, I spent most of my time with my head, either, in books or on the clouds. My headmistress – a Mrs Doris Ffloyd – had inspired me with Shakespeare, Dickens, Dostoevsky and WW1 poetry whilst my every spare hour was spent with the ATC, hanging around RAF bases and aeroplanes in pursuit of my plan to join the RAF and become a pilot. (The former continues but the latter was halted, somewhat abruptly, by my parents taking me out of school at 14 and declaring (a) I was not clever enough and (b) no one in our family was destined to become an “officer”, whilst asking also (iii) who the heck are Johnnie Johnson or “Biggles’ for that matter? That said, I did make Pilot Officer VR (T), at a young age that was considered a bit startling by some, and so one can ask; who knows?
Me, the victim of “big mouth syndrome (BMS)”
Also, being the victim of “big mouth syndrome (BMS)” has cost me greatly; for example, in Riyadh looking at a map of the Indian Ocean at the time of the US re-designating Deigo Garcia as a nice place for the crews of their B52 Stratocruisers to visit at weekends – presumably with Dr Strangelove on board – I remarked to my boss that realistically, during construction, it could only be serviced via Mauritius. “Better get your arse down there,” said he. Two days later, I was in Port Louis setting up a JV with a local trading and transport company and, as a result also, the journey to and from that little paradise, via Nairobi (and the notice board at the Stanley Hotel), became a standard commute; ‘tis’n’ard life” for some of us!
Another time, at a political meeting during the societal and industrial mayhem of the Thatcher years, I had the temerity to point out that throwing billions in EU money at “incoming industry” and “new jobs” was of little value unless you knew what (i) skills would be required for the new jobs, (ii) what skills were already present in those communities and (iii) what skills the local education system was capable of helping to produce. Sadly the Deputy PM of the time was sitting with us. As a result, though no technology geek, I spent several years helping fashion a “new skills structure” incorporating elements of local democracy, academia and business across multiple communities around what was, in places, a devasted UK.
In that process, I happened to mention to some of the guys in a tiny business called ICI that, whilst they were closing plant(s) in the northeast and northwest of England, the Americans were building, pretty well, the same facilities in Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere in the Gulf and needed, and would continue to need, lots of skilled folks. We promptly visited 16 US cities in 11 (eleven days)!
Then, because of extensions of the work to HM’s Armed Forces – undergoing a similar ‘restructuring’ at the time – we applied the ideas to some of the projects in Arabia; a new City (KKMC), Riyadh Airport, Peace Hawk, Peace Sun, the Saudi Naval Expansion Programme, a couple of airports and a few hospitals (based on skills). We actually got the first Gurkha a job as a ‘manager’ of a tech facility in Bahrain (as opposed to being a ‘security guard’ (no disrespect to security guards intended)). The same then happened re hospitals and medical staff; a Director of the DHSS Export division heard me talk about how British medical skills could be used in those situations to sell British medical equipment and off we went again!
As a result of all this, in part at least, we conceived, designed, produced, and published a full-colour broadsheet about skills and training, copies of which the RAF flew to bases around the world and in the same process took little old me to bases similarly distributed. (Caution: Advert warning!: more of the results of that affliction in (i) God’s Last Burlesque and (ii) I’ll never forget ….Whot’sisname?”
Politics, people and history.
Thus, always a keen observer of politics and people and an avid reader of world history, I have, rather to my surprise, engaged with governments and NGOs; operating (often discretely) at senior levels of management, with Ministers, Directors, and with Senior Officers in the military and security services at home and abroad. It all helped facilitate a personal awareness of, both, the power of change, ideas, people, ink and the “folding stuff”
But, ‘if you want to make God laugh’ …. in 2007, after the death of a friend in an incident whilst we were in our very own secret valley in the Himalayas, I concluded that it was time to either (i) ‘put an end to it all’ or (ii) start life again. I chose the latter, albeit somewhat reluctantly it has to be said, and engaged in a re-skilling exercise of my own. That is why, in 2008, somewhat miraculously given my background, (the result of another “BMS” conversation with an old bloke in the coffee shop at DMU, who turned out to be the sub-dean of the Uni), on same day I signed up for and completed an MA in Creative Writing and New Media; amazingly, (for me that is) undertaking what is, usually, a two-year course in 12 months; probably, ‘cos my tutor was sick of me!
‘Prescience’ or “I knew you were going to say that”, (Hans Solo and me);
Occasionally, I find that I have come to love a particular word – ‘prescience’ – being one such right now; and it is that I seem to have a propensity to write – albeit accidentally – about stuff that, as if by magic, becomes topical a bit later. Not that I am claiming to be clever or psychic – obviously – no, rather, I am simply building on the news as I read and see it, and then telling a tale as to how I think it might go; albeit, from my small perspective.
For example, “The Towers”, “Feeding the Beast”, “Byzantium” and “Pipelines” – all have elements of current events that were not always generally predicted at the time – sort of “who would have thought it?” e.g. “Molly Russell”, Putin in the Crimea, the present impasse in Israel, or “an MP dying as a result of what it was reported he had said? And, The controversial plan to turn a desert green. But, whether the actualité of the writing itself is of any merit and or potential value, we have yet to see.
“Michael, your use of the semi-colon constitutes an abuse of the English language”!
My point is, not to say how clever I am (I wish!) but, rather, (i) to explore if I can entertain others a tad, and, if so, then go on to ask myself; (ii) why not do so on an informed basis; especially in these times!?
Despite all the warnings from ‘proper’ writers about writing fast, I find it helps that, when I am so minded, and my subject is clear in my head, I write very quickly, albeit my work, often needs, a good editor. For example; (in another BMS episode) my MA Tutor had read out 1500 words at random and then invited us all to read back anything we had written whilst she was speaking. Most in the class declined but, I was curious and, it was all new to me, so I was happy to volunteer. It was not a happy outcome; she insisted, initially, that the piece I had written in the half hour after she had read out her list, could not possibly have been set out without some foreknowledge of the brief itself.
But it was; the words were hers, she just read them out random and my Qosmio and imagination did the rest; almost as she read, I was crafting a chapter (actually, it became a part of “A Foot in Both Camps”).
Given that ability, I thought we – me and my reader – might take up our rightful positions at the forefront of events and happenings if prompted with timely releases of ideas that might resonate when needed. TheCafe Society is a marvellous and liberating tool for that purpose. Now as theCafé gets underway, I hope to join the team and engage with others who, like me, enjoy being asked to think a bit whilst also relaxing and being entertained (prétentieux – Moi?!).
As one ages, some of us can tend to become a tad too serious and a bit formal; qualities that I have spent a great deal of effort trying to resist, albeit – to date – with no real benefits in terms of evidence of success. That process gets ever harder by the decade and so, in my writings, I try to encompass devices that will remind me of my weaknesses and, by so doing, if not avoid, then, at least, laugh at them.
I have to say that one of ‘my editors’ helped a bit in that direction by telling me; “your use of the semi-colon constitutes an abuse of the language!” So, the real question that remains is; will anyone actually like and read my work, indeed, might it, even, be “saleable” in some form? My involvement with theCafe and theCafe Society is very much the product of this mission – my own and those of others – and, if nought else, it allows me to say a big thank you to all who have helped me with this latter part of my work and life as I too looked for a new sense of wellbeing from ‘creativity’ – in my case writing.
That is why, and how, I deem myself to have been enormously lucky; indeed, blessed!
Finally
Finally, (at last! I hear you say) more personal and possibly less ‘fun’ for anyone unlucky enough to be exposed to it, I wanted to see if I could find a perspective on life; in particular, my life and the people, places events and ideas that have shaped it. For lots of reasons, including those of health, I decided to tackle it as honestly as one can on the basis; “if not now, then when?!”
Telling the truth and reaching a better understanding about self, life and the universe can be traumatic; especially if one is frank about things. But it can also help “set us free”. Sharing these works with friends and colleagues has produced some interesting results. A few in the group have found this area of ‘my work’ helpful in their life’s journey, their feelings and fears being, perhaps, liberated by how I try to look honestly at myself – probably a bit of: “if that idiot can do it …”.
In terms of their perspectives of me, from responses to date, they had, as it were, bought into ‘the image’ I had been hawking for most of my adult(?) life. As a result, my not being afraid to show my failings has encouraged and helped, some to be less afraid of taking a hard look at ‘self’. They now tell me that, in some ways, they were “empowered” to achieve a better understanding of their challenges. Even, Insha’Allah, to find an improved sense of their well-being – which is, after all, a part of the core mission of theCafe.
Putting it simply, if someone like me can find and then reformat, with honesty, ‘the truth’ about myself, then anyone can do it! It emerged as two books….
