Zen and Xenophobia - Downes, Jonathan

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Résumé :
Three years ago, I wrote a book called The Song of Panne, which told the story of how my dear, long suffering wife Corinna and I ended up having a hairy humanoid forest Godling (to steal Kipling's nomenclature) living in the airing cupboard in what used to be my father's dressing room. You can take it as fiction if you like, or you can believe every word I say. Believe it or not, it truly doesn't matter to me one way or another. This book continues the story roughly from where it left off, although the vast majority of it tells the story of a few days in the Autumn of 2015, and explains some of the things left hanging in the first book. I would like to think that you can read this book as a standalone volume, although - as an impecunious author with wife, family, animals and forest Godling to support - I could always do with the cash if you would like to buy the previous book. Although some of the characters in the book are real (whatever that means), in order to protect my kneecaps, it is probably better if you assume that everybody here except for me and Corinna is completely made up. I would warn you that if you are of a nervous disposition, or easily offended, you will find parts of this book both offensive and upsetting. There is sex, violence, drug abuse, occultism, pornography, firearms, politics, religion, and not a little sociology. But there is also love, kindness, faith, and redemption.

Biographie:
Jonathan Downes (born 1959) is a naturalist, cryptozoologist, author, editor, film-maker, poet, novelist, activist, journalist, composer and singer-songwriter, with a background in radical politics and mental health care. He is Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology. His father, the explorer and Colonial Service Officer J. T. Downes (1925-2006), wrote several books on a wide range of subjects, such as African history, theology and the Devonshire dialect. His mother Mary Downes (n?e Rawlins) (1922-2002) was a broadcaster and author who published several collections of Nigerian folklore under the pen-name `Yar Kunama`. As a child he lived in Nigeria, and then Hong Kong (then a British Crown Colony), and returned to the UK in 1971, when his father was 'invalided out' of the Hong Kong government. Having suffered from manic-depression for years, Downes is an activist for mental health issues. Between 1985 and their divorce in 1996 he was married to Alison Huntingford. On 21 July 2007 he married his second wife Corinna Newton Downes who died of cancer on 16 August 2020. He has two stepdaughters and a granddaughter.