Lines of Thought, by Ben Jeapes

Image by TheAndrasBarta from Pixabay

Two weekends ago I was sitting and waiting for a talk to start at the Festival of Faith and Literature in Winchester. To pass the time I got chatting with the lady sitting next to me. She had come up from the New Forest that day so talk turned to the ponies there and their charming habits of innocently wandering in front of cars. She said they now wear reflective collars so that they can at least be better seen at night. I suggested they could be fitted with red and green running lights, like boats, so drivers can assess their direction of travel as well as their presence.

After a while she looked at me sideways and said, “Are you Ben?”

We had only been at university together, [mumble] years ago. I was at her wedding. We hadn’t seen each other for around three decades so pardon my face-blindness. She had gleaned enough clues from our conversation to work it out.

I’ve often driven through the town where she and her husband live. Since then I’ve been imagining tracing the routes the three of us have taken over the last thirty years on a map. How often did our paths almost cross? Alternatively, what is the furthest apart we’ve ever been?

I often have similar thoughts about my wife. We lived in the same town for ten years before meeting.

A client has written two cracking historical novels tracing the lives of three men who actually existed, one French and two English, through the Napoleonic wars, from Napoleon’s coronation to the aftermath of Waterloo. If you traced their lives on a map of Europe, the lines would extend as far west as Lisbon and as far east as Moscow, and you would see them twine and intertwine time and time again. Though extraordinarily, the only time they were ever all in the same room was at a soirée in Paris, July 1814.

I love this sort of thing. It doesn’t necessarily lead directly to a writing habit but it keeps the imagination churning, and as it churns, stuff spills over and I write it down. I wonder if God, the Three in One, was discussing wild and whacky concepts with himself one day – you know, things like putting running lights on ponies – and said to himself, you know, why don’t I create a universe and put people in my own image in it? Wouldn’t that be great?

 

Ben Jeapes (www.benjeapes.com) took up writing in the mistaken belief that it would be easier than a real job (it isn’t). Hence, as well as being the author of eight novels and co-author of many more, he has also been a journal editor, book publisher, and technical writer. His most recent title is Ghostwriting Novels: A Guide for Ghostwriters and the Ghostwritten.