Gerry Fenge

Back in August 1990 as I lay dying (but apparently not quite) in the Aga Khan Hospital Nairobi, the book I had by my bedside was The Silent Road by Wellesley Tudor Pole (often known as TP).

If you're about to nip off into the Beyond it can help to have a few words of advice, and TP was a handy adviser. Wounded war hero (1917), London businessman, archaeologist, traveller and family man, he was also a mystic. A very accomplished mystic.

That was the bit I liked.

As I grew up there had been a feeling that spirituality was something that happened elsewhere, chiefly India, preferably sitting cross-legged whilst wearing a kaftan.Not so with TP. He was a man of two worlds and seemed to function just as efficiently in Britain, albeit wearing suit and tie, as he did in the Beyond.

Ten years later I was recovering from some more surgery, less drastic this time so I could take my time enjoying the convalescence. Maybe I enjoyed it too much because I got one of those surges of well-being that accompany returning health, and decided to write a biography of TP. No one else had done it and, well, didn't everyone need to know about the wounded war hero, London businessman etc who could diddle off into the Beyond and have remarkable adventures?

Ah, the optimism of youth! (I was under fifty at the time.) I set to work, investing time, energy and a few thousand pounds into research, collation of research, editing of research, sewing together of research and eventual sending out of sewn-together research. And then - guess what - the first agent I tried said yes. The agent in question, however, operated in somewhat elusive fashion, and I never really knew what he was getting up to, until - some time afterwards - he retired. (Hey, I hadn't driven him to it, had I?)

After that I tried various tactics, eventually posting some extracts on the net - at wellesleytudorpole.com

And that's what did it...

In September 2010, I received an email from David Spangler, a practical mystic not unlike TP himself. He had spotted the website and wanted arrange publication via his friend, Jeremy Berg, of Starseed Publications.

And the moral of all this? Well, have you heard the tale of the frog in the milk churn? He fell in and tried leaping out again, but the milk wasn't solid enough to make a platform. He was a determined little froggy, however, and kept swimming around - and trying to jump - and swimming around - and trying to jump. And by morning he'd churned the milk into butter.

Then he leapt out.

There's lots more churning I want to do on other projects, but - for now - it's good to see this particular pail of milk looking rather more like butter.

For lots more information on Gerry Fenge and his projects, do take time to visit gerryfenge.com