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Pages From A Notebook: Slices Of Life Along The Road To Writing
PREFACE
In this, my first non-fiction book, I have visited the pages in notebooks kept over many decades, to recapture the sights and sounds of the places visited and people encountered.
While many of the pieces are about the places visited over the years, (China, India, England, America, The Caribbean, among others), many are about the interesting people on those trips.
Novelist and Essayist Julianna Baggott “Writers are socially observant. We find people endlessly fascinating...” Indeed, writers are great people-watchers. But even more interesting is how those people-watchers react to other people’s foibles and quirks, so I consider myself among the breed of people-watcher-watchers.
If you’ve read any of my published books, you would be correct in thinking that some of the writing in these pieces sounds familiar. Writing after all, is part biographical, part imagination, part research and discovery.
I hope you will find my selection of Slices of Life interesting enough to spend some time with me…
MAKING UP TIME I find a woman’s relentless tail-gating unnerving in Brampton, Ontario, c1989.
THE BAHAMIAN WAY The people, the language, the place, as noted in my 1990 visit.
ZIPPERHEAD AND HARPY Characters encountered at the airport in Mississauga on the way to Guyana in 1991.
THE TAXI DRIVER My first night in my 1991 return to Guyana after leaving in 1970, and the man who chauffeured me.
A LOVERS TRYST My last day in Georgetown reveals that few things have changed in 1991, twenty-one years after I left.
RIDING THE J TRAIN Some notes about the startling ads and riders aboard the New York City subway in 1991.
ON THE BOARDWALK My return to Coney Island in Brooklyn in 1991 and an encounter with a homeless man.
OLD, HELPLESS AND IN HOSPITAL Observations about patients in hospital in Brampton, Ontario make for interesting reading. Has anything changed? Published in the Globe And Mail in Toronto in 1992.
A FINANCE CONFERENCE Who said accountants are a boring lot? I find different in a Chicago conference in 1995.
STRANGER IN MY HOUSE A 1996 observation about my mother in her waning years. Brampton, Ontario.
A MAN CALLED KENTISH A weed-imbibing taxi driver unloads his troubles and criticism about the government in my visit to Jamaica in 1997.
THE CONVERSATION A young lad tells me about his firing from a recent job and an upcoming interview for another, in Brampton, Ontario 2000.
CHILEAN FJORDS The vastness, the scenic beauty, the sad and swiftly dwindling ice caps in the fjords of Chile are shown in a photo taken in 2009. Photo published in The Toronto Star Travel Section.
CRIES FROM CAMBODIA A photograph taken in 2009 shows the unforgettable memorial to half a million Cambodians killed in a dark period in the country’s history.
SHATABHI EXPRESS Before I board a train to visit the Taj Mahal in 2010, I experience the sights, sounds and smells of the train station. Photograph taken by me is part of this piece.
ON THE STREETS OF MUMBAI Being at the right place at the right time—a photographer’s dream, facilitated this photograph in Mumbai, 2010.
QUEUES Waiting to board a bus in Victoria Station, London, England in 2011 makes for interesting observations about the passengers.
MIDNIGHT COACH TO PENZANCE A woman faces eviction on the bus to Penzance in 2011 and the conductor is adamant that she must leave.
THE GREAT WALL The Great Wall of China is everything said and written about it, and more, as I discover in a trip in 2016.
In this, my first non-fiction book, I have visited the pages in notebooks kept over many decades, to recapture the sights and sounds of the places visited and people encountered.
While many of the pieces are about the places visited over the years, (China, India, England, America, The Caribbean, among others), many are about the interesting people on those trips.
Novelist and Essayist Julianna Baggott “Writers are socially observant. We find people endlessly fascinating...” Indeed, writers are great people-watchers. But even more interesting is how those people-watchers react to other people’s foibles and quirks, so I consider myself among the breed of people-watcher-watchers.
If you’ve read any of my published books, you would be correct in thinking that some of the writing in these pieces sounds familiar. Writing after all, is part biographical, part imagination, part research and discovery.
I hope you will find my selection of Slices of Life interesting enough to spend some time with me…
MAKING UP TIME I find a woman’s relentless tail-gating unnerving in Brampton, Ontario, c1989.
THE BAHAMIAN WAY The people, the language, the place, as noted in my 1990 visit.
ZIPPERHEAD AND HARPY Characters encountered at the airport in Mississauga on the way to Guyana in 1991.
THE TAXI DRIVER My first night in my 1991 return to Guyana after leaving in 1970, and the man who chauffeured me.
A LOVERS TRYST My last day in Georgetown reveals that few things have changed in 1991, twenty-one years after I left.
RIDING THE J TRAIN Some notes about the startling ads and riders aboard the New York City subway in 1991.
ON THE BOARDWALK My return to Coney Island in Brooklyn in 1991 and an encounter with a homeless man.
OLD, HELPLESS AND IN HOSPITAL Observations about patients in hospital in Brampton, Ontario make for interesting reading. Has anything changed? Published in the Globe And Mail in Toronto in 1992.
A FINANCE CONFERENCE Who said accountants are a boring lot? I find different in a Chicago conference in 1995.
STRANGER IN MY HOUSE A 1996 observation about my mother in her waning years. Brampton, Ontario.
A MAN CALLED KENTISH A weed-imbibing taxi driver unloads his troubles and criticism about the government in my visit to Jamaica in 1997.
THE CONVERSATION A young lad tells me about his firing from a recent job and an upcoming interview for another, in Brampton, Ontario 2000.
CHILEAN FJORDS The vastness, the scenic beauty, the sad and swiftly dwindling ice caps in the fjords of Chile are shown in a photo taken in 2009. Photo published in The Toronto Star Travel Section.
CRIES FROM CAMBODIA A photograph taken in 2009 shows the unforgettable memorial to half a million Cambodians killed in a dark period in the country’s history.
SHATABHI EXPRESS Before I board a train to visit the Taj Mahal in 2010, I experience the sights, sounds and smells of the train station. Photograph taken by me is part of this piece.
ON THE STREETS OF MUMBAI Being at the right place at the right time—a photographer’s dream, facilitated this photograph in Mumbai, 2010.
QUEUES Waiting to board a bus in Victoria Station, London, England in 2011 makes for interesting observations about the passengers.
MIDNIGHT COACH TO PENZANCE A woman faces eviction on the bus to Penzance in 2011 and the conductor is adamant that she must leave.
THE GREAT WALL The Great Wall of China is everything said and written about it, and more, as I discover in a trip in 2016.
91 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 18, 2024
About the author
Ken Puddicombe
20 books10 followersKen Puddicombe’s first calling was in the Accounting profession. He’s a professional [CPA, CMA] Management Accountant] who provided controllership for a number of companies in the private sector before he retired to pursue his first love of writing. His hobbies includes travelling and he is slowly covering all five continents, having already travelled to South East Asia, South America, and Europe. He considers himself a people watcher watcher and loves to observe all aspects of the human psyche. His writing has appeared in newspapers and literary journals. Originally from British Guiana [now Guyana] in South America, he immigrated to Canada and still lives there with his family. Racing With The Rain was his first novel and is set in British Guiana, Cuba, Canada and Guyana. His second novel Junta is now out on amazon. A collection of short stories entitled Down Independence Boulevard is being worked on. His genre is fiction, based on international locations but especially focussed in Canada, the Caribbean and Guyana. His website: http://www.kenpuddicombe.ca/Writer
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 15, 2025
This is a writer’s book for writers and a reader’s book for aspiring writers. It’s a series of character studies, slices of life written down and set aside by Ken Puddicombe as they happened, later to be incorporated into some of his books, and now assembled into one book. Don’t expect precise Renoir masterpieces. Do expect to enjoy raw sketches, contemporaneous observations of amusing, and annoying characters and situations, seen along the road to writing. Expect to enjoy it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review