Why I Started Writing Novels

 During my career, I have written well in excess of 100 books, papers and published technical reports. Some of these have been of an academic nature such as textbooks, source books and journal articles whilst others have presented the results and lessons from multi-country research programmes conducted whilst I worked for the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). There have also been numerous technical studies and reports produced for international and multi-lateral organisations. Earlier publications were government reports. 

The main focus of most of these publications has been on sustainable development, the assessment of environmental and social impacts of development activities, and the management of natural resources – and mainly in the context of low- and middle-income countries of the global south, particularly in Africa and Asia. 

But when I retired from IIED and started my own consulting practice (see: www.eds-international.org), I looked back and thought about all of the publications I had authored, either individually or with others. There is no doubt that these publications contain a wealth of important information that – along with similar publications from many other workers and researchers in this field – is of value and can help to inform and guide policy-making, planning and decision-taking and to steer countries and communities towards a more sustainable future. But I wondered just who will have accessed, let along read, many of these documents. And the conclusion I came to was it was probably very few people. 

Hopefully, academics and students will have found some of these publications informative and useful. Those that commissioned or funded reports and research projects will have at least taken a look at the products, but I suspect this may have been limited to scanning the executive summaries and tables of content. I would be surprised if many planners or decision-makers have had access to these documents or actually looked at them. And certainly, the public will have no knowledge of them and perhaps little incentive to delve into them if they have come across them. 

I am proud of the work that I have been involved in, and the publications are a lasting record of what has been identified and learned. If these are of interest to you, you can access some key publications under the ‘publications’ tab at: www.barrydalal-clayton@yolasite.com. 

But I asked myself whether there might be a better way to communicate – to a broad audience - some of the critical environmental and social risks and issues that challenge the world and particularly people in poorer countries, and the ways that they can best be addressed and managed. And so, I turned to writing environmental thrillers, hoping that my readers would come face-to-face with these important challenges and feel immersed in the special places where my work has taken me - perhaps whilst relaxing in their gardens or whilst sitting on a beach on vacation. 

Key environmental and social issues that governments and communities must face in the countries where the novels are based provide a background framework for the plots. But the stories are full of adventure and intrigue, the battles between the good and bad guys, and are set in magnificent and wild landscapes.

To date, I have published six novels and they are available exclusively on www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk and other amazons websites, as either e-books or paperback.

I hope my readers enjoy the novels and learn something from them.