Hugh Paxton, 45, is an award-winning free-lance journalist born in Aden during “the troubles.”

He has covered loads of weird things and filed stories from nearly eighty countries.

To date nobody has shot him.

And nothing (and nobody) has eaten him.

Which is something of a miracle.

Although he was based (loosely) in Tokyo for 12 years he has now exchanged the bright lights of ‘salariland’ for the wide open and blissfully unpopulated spaces of Namibia (formerly known as South West Africa).

His Japanese wife, Midori, an ardent conservationist, is here attempting to expand and improve the country’s astonishingly beautiful national park network.

But this is by the by. Get to the point.

And the point is this:

Homunculus may soar like a bird. Or it may crash and burn like a Nigerian commercial airliner.

For Paxton, and for as long as he can remember, his cup has always been half full (usually with strong drink) so he is going for the bird soaring scenario.

But whatever happens to this book the world will hear from him again.

Paxton is sitting on four more complete manuscripts. As yet un-published so if any agents or publishers read this please get agenting (and publishing) pronto!

BOOK ONE: “Overland” – more African anarchy this time revolving around a disaster-prone overland bus crammed with wildly incompatible tourists (not to mention criminals). Diamond smuggling, curses, revolution in Zimbabwe, mummified Bushmen, haunted caves and exploding elephants all feature prominently. The heroine, Mabel Meade, is a retired English librarian.

BOOK TWO: “The Diary of Abbot Buggly” – the life and times of a small person growing up in Namibia. The small person is Paxton’s daughter, Annabel, who at three years old is currently Africa’s youngest travel correspondent. She has a well received column in Air Namibia’s in-flight mag, Flamingo). All incidents, in the book, no matter how outrageous they might seem, are true.

BOOKS THREE AND FOUR: “The Alchemist: Part the First” and “The Alchemist: Part the Second.” Both books are for the sort of people who enjoy Harry Potter. Of whom there seem to be rather a lot.

Thanks for bearing with me and enjoy (if that’s the word) Homunculus!

Cheers!