St. Decay in Cornwall Today

My book of infrared photos of Cornwall, Welcome to St. Decay, is featured in this month's Cornwall Today magazine, available from most supermarkets and book shops in the county. Photos from the book grace the cover and a six-page article (which I also wrote). I'm extremely grateful to the team at Cornwall Today, in particular Tim Dixon, for featuring my photos.

Previously on Barnflakes
Welcome to St. Decay

Barndoor Books

A selection of recently printed Barndoor Books, from left to right: Pulp Poetry, Welcome to St. Decay, Rashisms, It's A Shame About Ray and Collected and Selected Poems.

Here's what some people are saying about some of them:

WELCOME TO ST. DECAY
'The whole concept of this and these mesmerising images of alien-like landscapes of Cornwall taken on an infrared camera are so incredibly haunting, evocative and simply staggeringly beautiful.'
– Christian B

'Quite wonderful'
– Naomi

'Stunning'
– Tim

'I really love your book. It’s novel, beautiful, intelligent and ascerbic in places – just like Cornwall. I think you’ve created something that says something new about Cornwall and I love it!'
– Rachael

'Should be in the Tate Modern'
– Frances

'Great'
– Chris

'Clearly a labour of love'
– Helen

'Amazing and challenging images of where we grew up'
– Bob

IT'S A SHAME ABOUT RAY
"U r a fucking genius!!!!!!"
– Christian G

"Makes me want to meet the legend"
– Mel

"You must have a lot of time on your hands"
– Caspar

"Brilliant work"
– Narinder

"No comment"
– Ray

SELECTED AND COLLECTED POEMS
'You Are The God! Colossal respect, sir. To me, this book is what the world needs – badly!'
– Malcolm

Welcome to St. Decay and Pulp Poetry are available to buy on Etsy.

Welcome to St. Decay

Cornwall as it's never been seen before, in glorious infrared. Welcome to St. Decay – the book – celebrates Cornwall's mining heritage through a luridly-bright colour palette.

Taken over a six-month period walking and cycling around the Cornish countryside from St. Agnes to St. Austell, the book explores nature's gradual but inevitable reclamation of the man-made, focusing on abandoned engine houses where ivy climbs the chimneys and walls. For me, these engine houses are as grand and beautiful as any cathedral or castle and deserve to be celebrated.

All photos were taken by me with an infrared camera, and the book was designed by myself.

Book specifications:
Softback, full colour, 62 pages, size 120x120mm.
£9.99.

Get it on Etsy now!

Selected and collected poems – the book

About a decade ago, maybe longer, I designed – in Quark – a book of poems I'd written in the 1990s; mostly terrible art student angst stuff. I recently found the book on an old hard disk, redesigned and updated it to include some more recent poems, still terrible, but I'm fond of them, so here they are. Yes, I still have too much time on my hands but it was fun to do. Selected and Collected Poems is a 40-page book of poems from 1990-2016. Add it to the list of books I will get printed someday.

For a taster, browse the poems category of this blog; they all make an appearance in the book.

Previously on Barnflakes:
It's a Shame About Ray – the book 
Missed Photos
Alton Estate of Mind – the book
Rashims: the book of Rash
Pulp Poetry

50 Shades of Ray / Catching some Rays

Just two (for the price of one) concepts from the 28-page book that is It's A Shame About Ray.

Here's what people are already saying about it:

"U r a fucking genius!!!!!!"
– Christian

"Makes me want to meet the legend"
– Mel

"You must have a lot of time on your hands"
– Caspar

"Brilliant work"
– Narinder

"No comment"
– Ray

It's a Shame About Ray – the book

Yes, this is now an actual thing. What started off as a drunken laugh in the pub is now, a week later, an actual book – well, once I get it printed of course. It's a Shame About Ray – named after the classic Lemonheads album – is a tribute to production manager Ray, his B2B magazine flatplans, and the cornucopia of puns that go with the man and the name.

And what an array of Rays: from Blu-Ray, Stingray and Ray Gun to the Milky Ray, 50 Shades of Ray and Ray of Hope, all the clichés – and more – are featured in one handy 28-page, A5 booklet. A fitting panegyric to the man and his work, it is also the perfect companion to my previous Rashisms: The Book of Rash, as Ray and Rash both worked together.

Previously on Barnflakes:
The Rayfaring Stranger
Rashims: The Book of Rash

Missed photo #743

On the train to Paddington somewhere in the countryside just past Pewsey. A sunset – and yes, I generally think photographs of sunsets as over-rated and clichéd – but this one was so sudden and unexpected, and possibly better than the ones in Bagan, Burma (and that's saying something).

It had been a boiling hot day. The hills were shrouded in mist receding into the distance, and the sun obscured by wild swirls of red clouds. It was perfect and beautiful. There was nothing I could do – I fleetingly thought of pressing the emergency cord to stop the train so I could get a decent photo of it. It would be gone in a matter of minutes; it was getting dark outside and brights lights were on in the carriage so a picture was impossible. Sometimes you've just got to be in the moment, sit back and appreciate the fleeting beauty of the world. That's what I did; I had a beer and a packet of crisps. Things could be worse.

I'm still working on that book of missed photos...

Previously on Barnflakes:
Book of untaken photos

Alton estate of mind – the book

The Alton estate of mind book(let) is finally finished. It's a personal and architectural guide to the Grade II listed Alton estate in Roehampton, where I lived many years ago. The text is mainly the same as on this very blog (see here); some of the photos are on Flickr. But there's nothing like  holding a book (or going to an exhibition). You know, the physical, tactile thing. I still have to get it printed, mind. Watch this space (again).

Rashisms: The Book of Rash

My friend and colleague Rashpaul passed away almost two years ago, and he is still sorely missed by many. I've been meaning to create a book of his sayings and hilarious photo montages since he died. I finally have, and will be printing it soon. Watch this space.

Previously on Barnflakes:
Pulp Poetry posthumously published

Pulp Poetry posthumously published

Over fifteen years after Joy and I first started sending thigh poems to each other (don't ask), Pulp Poetry finally gets 'published' (by which I mean professionally printed. Previously, the only few existing copies were printed on home inkjet printers).

This is what it used to say on Barnflakes.com about the book:

Pulp Poetry started life as correspondence between Joy and Barnaby sometime in 1995. They can't remember who, what or why they started writing poems about thighs to each other. Some might have even called it bizarre. But the poems proved so popular that (three) other people joined in. These poems formed the basis of the anthology Pulp Poetry featured in Joy's now legendary art exhibition / happening, 'Much ado about nothing' in September 2000.
 The poems and book lay dormant in their somewhat amateurish state until some years later when the creators thought it needed a redesign and reissue. This is it.

The book was specially printed in memory of Joy Bedford. She will be dearly missed by many.

Available to buy on Etsy.

Who's that girl?

Search on Google images for 'female student' and she appears at number six. But rather than being the epitome of a young, pretty student on her way to college, to most she is the face you see when the website you're looking for no longer exists. It's tough being a stock image, not knowing in what context your photo will be used.

In my case, she fronts my now-defunct website, gullible-travels.com, which I am quite happy about. The site was so ugly anyway, I actually prefer the design now, with her smug smile promising faraway delights. Where is she now? What is she doing? Has she got her PhD in Chemical Engineering? Is she married? Is she happy?

Anyway, I actually felt a bit sad deleting the website; almost like admitting a relationship wasn't working and terminating it. Happily, the book can still be bought from lulu.com. I will incorporate parts of the old Gullible Travels website into barnflakes.com at some point.

But you know what I saw the other day in a charity shop? Billy Connolly's Gullible's Travels, published in 1982. Gah. It's impossible to have an original pun these days.

Tijuana Tales

"But we did nothing, absolutely nothing that day, and I say:
What the hell am I doing drinking in L.A. at 26?"
– Bran Van 3000, Drinking in L.A.

"All I wanna do is have some fun
Until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard"
– Sheryl Crow, All I Wanna Do

Just for the record: I have been drinking in L.A. aged 26 and I have driven down Santa Monica Boulevard whilst listening to the Sheryl Crow song.

After staying with some millionaires in a mansion in Pacific Palisades, L.A., I hired a car to go driving round the States. It should be noted this was just weeks after passing my driving test in England. I'd never driven a car without a driving instructor, never been on a motorway, never driven at night or in the rain, in an automatic on the right-hand side. And here I was midday in L.A. I was petrified.

Things started badly. I drove along a four-lane one-way freeway – the wrong way. Just as the lights were changing to green, four lanes of cars started racing towards me. I swerved just in time. Into a bus stop. I stalled up on the kerb. People at the bus-stop were staring at me. Drivers in their open-top jeeps were shouted at me. I tried to concentrate on the driving; it was embarrassing more than anything else. I somehow got off the kerb and started driving normally. A few hours later I'd left LA and started heading north. Things were getting better. But it was now dark and raining, and I found myself driving too fast. A cop car flashed its lights behind me. My heart stopped. Then it overtook me and pulled over the car in front of me.

I eventually made it to Berkeley and stayed with a friend for a week. There was a moment, driving over the Golden Gate bridge, when a car full of Californian girls passed me in an open top car. They all looked over at me, smiling. I smiled back and thought, yes, this is what it's like to be an American.

I drove 3,000 miles around California, Arizona and Nevada over the next few weeks and stopped off in San Diego. In the evening I wondered round the gaslight area. it was nice and gentrified, but i was ready for Tijuana.

I love overland border crossings, they really accentuate the differences between two countries; by flying you hardly notice, for all airports seem the same. However, I felt a bit disappointed by Tijuana. It seemed so tacky – I was expecting an old-fashioned frontier town atmosphere. Instead it was American tourists with their cheap cartons of Marlboro, their prescription-only drugs, their two-for-one Margaritas. I got lost then got a taxi back into town. The driver asked me if I wanted to fuck his wife, mother or daughter. His mother was cheap, his daughter expensive. I wasn't sure he was joking.

I drank two-for-one Margaritas in a loud, tacky bar. I got drunk and out in the street a small, portly Mexican with untrustworthy eyes and a moustache started walking with me. He seemed friendly – and I thought, great, a friendly local and we chatted away. Suddenly he said he's a policeman and he's been watching me. He said 'We believe you are part of an international drugs ring and I'm going to take you down to the police station for questioning.'
At first, I laughed. It sounded funny, like out of a movie. Then I looked at the man. He wasn't laughing.
'You think I am joking?'
He turned nasty.
'This isn't the United States, this isn't Europe. We can do what we want with you here.'

He made a signal to someone in a car, an undercover cop, he told me. He said he was important around here. He was annoying. He wouldn’t leave me alone. I guess I was scared but it just sounded a bit half-baked and I couldn’t really take the short, stubby Mexican too seriously. I asked him what he wanted. He said he wanted money. I told him all I had was travellers cheques (partially true). I can’t remember how long the money conversation went on for – quite some time anyway. Even when you’re being scammed you can haggle, and haggling takes time. I think I gave him like $1 in the end.

Then I bought two cartons of cheap Marlboros and decided to get out of the place. I got worried at the border when I read you couldn’t take more than one carton of cigarettes into the States. I asked someone to carry a carton for me – turned out he was Irish and we chatted till past the border and back into San Diego. Then a young American guy was over-hearing me with the Irish guy that I was new in town and he ended up showing me round all these cool bars. I quite liked him, and it was real kind of him, and we heard some great blues music in some nice bars, but I wasn’t sure what his angle was. A lot of the time we didn’t have much to talk about. I wasn’t sure if he was gay, lonely, over-friendly or an undercover cop. I couldn’t decide what was worse.

(1996)

Previously unpublished; if you like your travel stories peppered with sex, drugs, loneliness and despair, don't forget my travel book, Gullible Travels, is available to buy from lulu.com.

Gullible Travels to buy on lulu.com

Gullible Travels is now available to buy direct from lulu.com, and no longer from gullible-travels.com. The advantage of buying through lulu is it accepts credit or debit cards as well as PayPal (payment through gullible-travels is PayPal only). Oh, and you may even save a pound or two buying it at lulu!

Desire, Hope & Bourbon

Here's an extract from Desire, Hope & Bourbon: On the Streets of New Orleans, a 35min. video documentary I made way back in 1996. It was made with a lot of help from Ivan, who I met up last weekend – the first time we've seen each other since 1996. That makes us old. Anyway, this fits in nicely with Gullible Travels as some of the best stories in the book are about the characters of the once fine city.

Find Barnflakes's Homeless Movies on YouTube here. I'll be adding lots more films and videos in the months to come.

GULLIBLE TRAVELS OUT NOW!

Gullible Travels, published by Chapbook Publishing, is now available to buy exclusively from the new look gullible-travels website. It costs £9.99 plus postage. It's a 343 page paperback book with some black and white photos. Expect 4-5 business days for delivery.

Here's a review of it:

"Like grey-faced foreign office officials around the world I am currently – eternally – negotiating peace (or war). My family is planning a holiday. Summits have been held, late night phone calls made, and finally, having worked around the clock or so it felt, success has been claimed: an agreement has been reached on the destination. Now, as they say, the real work must begin. Flights, shuttles, travel times, must-sees, tours, hotels, costs; it all needs to be researched, organised, proposed, discussed and agreed upon; it all needs to be itinerarised. And soon: we aim to leave in a mere eight months.

None of these aspects are paid much attention by Barnaby in his recently published book, Gullible Travels. Of course all non-fiction writers leave information out – travel writing often omits most of this common chunk of what travel actually entails – even if it were desirable to include all the boring and irrelevant details of life into a book it would be impossible. But in this collection of stories, it begins to seem less likely he was making any attempt, conscious or otherwise, to avoid the details of preparation, formalities such as getting immunised before travelling to SE Asia, than that such preparations may never have occurred. Indeed, he catches Dengue Fever – without any insurance – in Indonesia during its 1998 revolution (distracted by a prostitute who had stolen his video camera this event only became apparent to him after nearly all other foreigners had fled, the airport had closed and Jakarta smouldered around him).

Not worrying about consequences seems to be Barnaby’s approach to decision making in general and through this collection of stories we get to see how this plays out in Europe, the US, Asia, North Africa and Australasia. Every page is soaked in fear, embarrassment or loneliness – he spends a lot of time looking for sex and drugs – and yet Gullible Travels is an inspirational book: few people collect as many great stories in their lives."

Enjoy the book... but please don't judge me!

Gullible Travels: The Book

I wrote this travel book about ten years ago and have been trying to bury it ever since. It doesn't seem to want to go away. In particular, Chris Chapman, long time advocate of the stories, has gone and designed and published it on lulu.com. It's not available quite yet but in the mean time, to whet your appetites, have a look at more of it on Chris's cool graphic design website, chapbook.cc or read a couple of the stories – if you haven't already – at gullible-travels.com. Get your wallets open and be ready for a summer release. Watch this space.