A labour of love
GP: I know you’ve been a huge fan of the Camel Trophy for many years. Why was writing this book so important to you?
ND: Ever since I first became involved with Camel Trophy I’ve wanted to write a definitive history of the event. I knew there were so many stories that needed to be recorded, particularly as no-one who was involved with the event is getting any younger. It’s been 41 years since the first in 1980, and that’s half a lifetime for most people. Memories fade and ultimately disappear, so I felt that now is a good time to be documenting these stories for the record.
The pandemic is the main reason why this book exists. I’d wanted to do it for a long time, but I never had the time to dedicate to it. At the end of March 2020, I had two months of work disappear overnight, and as we moved into April it became obvious that I was going to have a lot of time on my hands at home. My family would probably say that I should have started redecorating the house, but instead I took it as a golden opportunity to write this book. I started by talking to friends and colleagues that I’d worked with on Camel
Trophy, and then I widened the net to individuals like Duncan Lee and Duncan Barbour that had left the event by the time I started to take part. Fortunately, the Camel Trophy community is strong, so it didn’t take long to get contact details for all the people I needed to talk to. Unfortunately, some individuals like Gwil Berry and David Robus from Land Rover died several years ago, and sadly, another chap I interviewed, Peter Beardow, passed away only a few weeks after I’d spoken to him. I have dedicated the book to all the individuals who took part in Camel Trophy who are no longer with us. Sadly, there are more than you might expect.
How did
