The Reason to Write

by Tahir Shah

As a child living in the English countryside, a constant stream of people turned up at Tahir Shah’s family home, all in search of his father – the writer and thinker Idries Shah. Among them were literary giants, including the classicist Robert Graves, Nobel laureate Doris Lessing, and the celebrated American novelist, J. D. Salinger. On one occasion when Salinger had just departed, Tahir asked why the author of The Catcher in the Rye wrote books at all. His father responded by ‘Salinger writes because if he stops he’ll turn to stone.’ Inspired by this quote, The Reason to Write is an account of Tahir’s journey through the trials and tribulations of what it is to be an author. Describing the ins and outs of the literary world by charting his own experiences, Tahir calls into question the established norms of a publishing system most of us take for granted. A book of exceptional insight, The Reason to Write is packed with tips for budding authors, examples of what has worked and not worked, and an appreciation of how best to navigate the ever-turbulent waters of the literary trade. The overriding message of this often-hilarious literary cornucopia is authors should write for themselves, and keep control – which means never selling out, no matter how appealing the lure. As a bestselling writer, whose forty or more books have been translated into dozens of languages the world over, Tahir Shah is regarded as one of the most original authors working today. The Reason to Write established him as a preeminent expert on the literary arts, as well as a forecaster of the fast-changing landscape of things to come.

704 pages, Paperback

First published July 20, 2020

About the author

Tahir Shah was born in London, and raised primarily at the family’s home, Langton House, in the English countryside – where founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden Powell was also brought up.

Along with his twin and elder sisters, Tahir was continually coaxed to regard the world around him through Oriental eyes. This included being exposed from early childhood to Eastern stories, and to the back-to-front humour of the wise fool, Nasrudin.

Having studied at a leading public school, Bryanston, Tahir took a degree in International Relations, his particular interest being in African dictatorships of the mid-1980s. His research in this area led him to travel alone through a wide number of failing African states, including Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Zaire.

After university, Tahir embarked on a plethora of widespread travels through the Indian subcontinent, Latin America, and Africa, drawing them together in his first travelogue, Beyond the Devil’s Teeth. In the years that followed, he published more than a dozen works of travel. These quests – for lost cities, treasure, Indian magic, and for the secrets of the so-called Birdmen of Peru – led to what is surely one of the most extraordinary bodies of travel work ever published.

In the early 2000s, with two small children, Tahir moved his young family from an apartment in London’s East End to a supposedly haunted mansion in the middle of a Casablanca shantytown. The tale of the adventure was published in his bestselling book, The Caliph’s House.

In recent years, Tahir Shah has released a cornucopia of work, embracing travel, fiction, and literary criticism. He has also made documentaries for National Geographic TV and the History Channel, and published hundreds of articles in leading magazines, newspapers, and journals. His oeuvre is regarded as exceptionally original and, as an author, he is considered as a champion of the new face of publishing.

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Reviews

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable book from someone at the top of their game. His enthusiasm and energy are transmitted in every page. I would think anyone serious about writing would benefit from this book since amongst many other things it looks at the future of publishing and gives advice on how to be on the edge of the changes. Probably best if traditional publishers and agents don't read it!

[Jorge Centofanti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tahir Shah is an incredibly prolific writer, with 33 books published and more on the pipeline. His themes range from adventures in the jungle, searches for Solomon treasures, stories in all shapes and colours travels around the world, novels about Timbuctoo or extraordinary fictional/real characters like Hannibal Fogg, and many other subjects that provided fascinating reading for me and, no doubt, his thousands of followers all over the world.
In ‘The reason to write’, a condensed cathartic experience of his life as a writer, he reveals it all like somebody who has nothing to hide, and expresses a deep need to share everything he learnt from his very first book to the last one, in great detail and with the same passion that inhabits all his books.
His tips and advice about every aspect of writing, editors, publishers, self-publishing, reviews, connecting up, promotions and all other matters that are part of everyday life for writers, are so rich, generous and helpful that beginners in the craft, as well as published authors, should derive much benefit from this book, I certainly did.

[Ulrika Eriksson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book immensely. Dense with advises and support to would- be writers: Go your own way, be original, please yourself and not a publisher. Tahir looks forward to a new bright and close future when, thanks to our technology, publisher's detrimental power over books is broken.

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Want some answers? Here they are? The Reason to Write is The REASON to write and HOW to Write and How YOU write, you the particular person. Full of insights and connections. Subsumed is how to experience. A river carries more than one craft on its buoyant waters, so does this book. Practical advice and surprising anchors of information connect this barque/boat to other barques and boats. “There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.” Tahir Shah has collected advice from other writers too... What a thrill. In language deceptively straight forward the author delivers advice that prevents alot of falling through holes and having to dig one's way out. Fell through the holes? The Reason to Write has safety ropes attached. Hannibal Fogg's mechanism is transcendence. This book's mechanism is transcendence.

[Andrew Boden · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most intriguing books I've ever read on writing. Certainly for craft, I'd heartily recommend Janet Burroway's "Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft" and John Gardner's "The Art of Fiction." But for the inside life of a writer who has struggled to carve out a space to write and publish free of the troubles of traditional publishing, this is my go to book. As a published writer myself, I found myself thinking of how our attachments to aspects of the writerly life keep us from the very craft we so eagerly say we want to pursue. The books tours, the adulation, the prizes — Shah points to a way to write and publish without these — to be a fully-fledged member of his "Salinger Brigade."

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first half of the book is an intensely interesting account of how the author developed as a writer, addressed to those who like him, have the absolute necessity of being writers. I am not a writer of any kind, nevertheless, besides its intrinsic interest, I could find sufficient parallel with my own interests to gather insights.

[Gerry Cullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tahir Shah's books are always a tour thru new sightings. Highly recommend all his writings.
Always some new way to see ordinary things that pops up in a whole new light.

[Ulrika Eriksson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tahir Shah offers thousand and one reasons to write or as I see it, to be creative in general. The first thing he makes clear for the reader is that the real author primarily writes for himself, NOT to become a famous author. I myself get filled with a strong desire "to create" as the book helps me realize that creativity is not exclusively reserved for the artist, but something we all can harness and develop for our own good.
I appreciate this book very, very much as it is full of endearing anecdotes about Doris Lessing, an author I adore and also because it inspires you to read books by other authors.
For anyone that identifies him or herself as an author and sees writing as an absolute life-necessity, The Reason to Write should be the best friend, support and guidance around and away from the publishing world, which Tahir describes as corrupt and in free fall.
”I've spent much of my life searching inspirators” writes Tahir on page 35 and I can only say that he himself has long been one of my favorite inspirators

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Want some answers? Here they are? The Reason to Write is The REASON to write and HOW to Write and How YOU write, you the particular person. Full of insights and connections. Subsumed is how to experience. A river carries more than one craft on its buoyant waters, so does this book. Practical advice and surprising anchors of information connect this barque/boat to other barques and boats. “There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.” Tahir Shah has collected advice from other writers too. Helpful to see how a variety of voices go about getting the words on the page. In language deceptively straight forward the author delivers advice that prevents alot of falling through holes and having to dig one's way out. Fell through the holes? The Reason to Write has safety ropes attached. This book is a thrill.