Top Ten by Martyn Bedford + UK & EUR Giveaway

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Author of -
Flip
 Black Cat
The Houdina Girl

Martyn Bedford’s Top 10 Places

In my teens and twenties I spent a lot of time travelling. In three separate trips totalling nearly two years, I hauled an increasingly grubby, smelly and battered backpack around Europe, North America, Australia, South-East Asia and the Far East. I kept diaries during these journeys and have used some (though not many) of my experiences in my writing – not as travelogue or autobiography, but fictionalised into short stories or scenes and episodes within my novels.

These days, “travelling”, for me, is family holidays with my wife and daughters. Two weeks in Spain, a week in Greece, a rented cottage in Norfolk or Northumberland. That sort of thing.  I don’t even own a backpack anymore. But I have many, many memories of those trips in my youth and can get quite wistful about them after a couple of beers and the slightest encouragement.

So, here, in no particular order, are the ten favourite places I visited back in the day:

Kagbeni, Nepal.

By far the strangest settlement I passed through on a 16-day hike in the Himalayas. A mountain village of mud-plastered buildings, like something from the Middle Ages – Nepali women threshing wheat on the flat roofs and the steep, narrow streets resonating to the sound of hundreds of Buddhist prayer wheels clicking in the wind.

Melbourne, Australia.

Of all the cities I’ve visited around the world, this is where I could most imagine living if I ever decided to emigrate from the UK. An attractive, cosmopolitan city, rich in culture. I spent three or four days enjoyable there in the mid-1980s and liked it every bit as much when I returned for a week in 2006 to take part in the Melbourne Writers’ Festival.

Borobudur, Indonesia.

A remarkable ancient monument, a kind of Buddhist pyramid of stone terraces decorated with Buddha statues and stupas and fluttering flags, set among rainforests and volcanoes in the heart of Java. Many years later, I used it as the setting for one of the “bonus material” pieces I wrote for the UK edition of my teen/young adult novel, FLIP.

Chiang Mai, Thailand.

I liked the town itself but, really, Chiang Mai was a base for a four-day trek in the tribal villages and jungles of the Golden Triangle, where northern Thailand borders Burma (now Myanmar) and Laos. A wonderful if physically gruelling expedition among some of the friendliest people you could hope to meet. Even the dysentery that afflicted me for much of the trek couldn’t ruin the experience!

Koh Samui, Thailand.

Back in 1984, Koh Samui’s international airport had yet to be built and travellers could only get there by boat from the mainland. It was little changed, I imagine, from its 1960s and 70s heyday on the South-East Asian backpackers’ trail and I spent 12 lovely days there. A place of thatched huts, water-buffalo fights, beach parties and shoreline cafes selling hash cookies.

Grand Canyon, USA.

With an Italian guy I’d befriended on a Greyhound bus ride, I trekked down one of the nerve-janglingly steep trails that zigzag into the bottom of the canyon. We camped overnight beside the Colorado River and hiked back out again the next day. The first time you see the canyon from the rim is more breathtaking than any film footage or photos can possibly prepare you for.

Pagan, Burma (Myanmar).

Once the ancient capital, later to be displaced by Rangoon, Pagan is now a city of ruins – a surprisingly large area strewn with hundreds of Buddhist temples and stupas in various states of disrepair and partially overgrown with vegetation. A magical, haunting place, especially at sunrise when the peaks of the ruins emerge like ghosts from the wreaths of morning mist.

Hong Kong, China.

It still belonged to the UK when I visited. My mate Kevin and I were running low on money on our round-the-world trip so we detoured to Hong Kong to spend four months teaching English. We rented a poky room on the umpteenth floor of the (in)famous Chunking Mansions in Kowloon. An exciting, vibrant, teeming city with some surprising oases of calm on the smaller, outlying islands.

Jaiselmer, India.

Almost as weird-looking as Kagbeni. The ancient fortress town of Jaiselmer  – not far from the Pakistani border – perches on a hill surrounded by the desert plains of Rajasthan, its sand-coloured stone glowing in the sunshine like honeycomb. It looks like something out of a (scary) fairytale. From there I went on a three-day camel ride in the desert. On a very grumpy, stumble-prone camel.

Siar Island, Papua New Guinea.

A tiny island off the north coast of PNG, it could only be reached (in those days, and maybe still) by paying a villager on the mainland to paddle you across the strait in a dugout canoe. The small, friendly community on Siar housed travellers (me, an Irish guy, an American and an Aussie girl) in a wooden guesthouse on stilts and fed us on rice, vegetables and shark, caught fresh from the sea.

To see Martyn's Top Ten list for body swapping books click here


Thank you for joining us at Books for Company, Martyn. Your so lucky to have been to so many places, you must have had amazing experiences!

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Plenty of teen-fiction writers have been drawn to stories about young people who switch bodies or experience some kind of dual identity.

It’s not surprising that there are so many. I know when I was a teenager the transition from childhood through adolescence to adulthood was a period of searching for a sense of who I was (or could be). It seems other writers of teen/YA fiction – and young readers themselves – are interested in similar themes.

Anyway, here – in alphabetical order – are my favourite teen novels of this kind, all of which I read before starting work on Flip or have come across since.

Terence Blacker – Boy2Girl

A boy goes to school disguised as a girl. Very funny and clever and sharply written. Typical Blacker in other words. If you haven’t read his teen fiction you’ve got several treats in store.

Kevin Brooks – Being

A boy wakes from an operation to find some odd internal alterations have taken place. A truly disturbing read (in a good way!)

Keren David – When I Was Joe

A gripping page-turner about a boy who goes into hiding under a false I.D. after witnessing a crime.

Peter Dickinson – Eva

A girl in a coma has her consciousness transplanted into a chimpanzee. Sounds bizarre but he really pulls it off. Very thought-provoking.

Sandra Glover – Somewhere Else

A poignant and nicely puzzling story about a girl who no longer recognises her family and insists she’s someone else.

Antony Horowitz – The Switch

Working class kid and posh boy switch bodies and lives. For younger readers, really – eight to twelve years – but a classic of this genre and, of course, Horowitz is a master of his craft.

Andrew Matthews – The Flip Side

A boy discovers a new lease of life through his female alter ego. A daring novel, with echoes of Boy2Girl in its themes; one which challenges some of our prejudices and preconceptions.

Mary Rodgers – Freaky Friday

A girl wakes up to find she’s turned into her mother. Made famous by two film adaptations. As always, the book is more complex and interesting by far than the screen versions, which tend to play it for cheesy laughs and weeps.