Jim Taylor is a Kentish adventurer and author who comes from the charming village of Sellindge just outside of Ashford, but has spent the majority of his life travelling and living life to its limits.
A quick perusal of Jim Taylor’s Facebook page will likely stir feelings within you of wanting to quit your job, pack a bag and start an engine, living life to its fullest and seizing the day is something Jim has as his life ambition. He tells CommunityAd that the longing to travel was stirring within him “since primary school days, I was always reading adventure books about faraway places and I have to say I was quite inspired by the Tin Tin comic series”.
Impressively Jim has kept a diary every day since he was fifteen years of age which he draws upon within his books, recalling random obscure events and thoughts “it is this aspect that makes the thrilling adventures seem so outrageous in the context of everyday normality”. CommunityAd had the good fortune to speak to Ashford’s adventurer about his bygone adventures, his love of Kent and his latest book Hot Metal.
What makes Kent a nice place to call home? It’s not that often you do call a place home as you’re always on the move, aren’t you?
Apart from the beauty of the North Downs and the White Cliffs coastline, there are a lot of quaint little places around, we have a choice of seaside settings, being a peninsular and various town all within a forty-five-minute journey. We have the ferry connections and as we can see the continent itself, it’s like a feeling that the rest of the world is just there, within reach. When, after a gruelling long-distance road-trip, I get to the port of Calais and can see England, I always feel happy to be going back there, but it’s never long before I am planning the next trip.
How many books have you written? They are all based on certain adventures, do you have a stand out favourite?
I have actually written five books, but only two are, as yet, published and on the shelves of Waterstones in the travel writing section. They are all based on individual themes and each one follows a series of related adventures peculiar to the book’s theme. Hot Metal is all about outrageous adventures that I could only have got myself into because of the bikes I was riding, Wheels of Steel is the other side of the same story, but cars and trucks mostly.
My next book (due out this September) is called Travellers in the Sand and is a little different, as it relates to experiences in most of the countries that make up the Middle East. My editor described it as “an extremely good travel guide for experiences no one can have anymore”.
My favourite is whichever one I am reading at the time, as they take me right back to some of the most incredible moments in my life.
Hot Metal is the latest in the series, what can readers expect from this one?
It reads a bit like an autobiography based entirely on my love for motorcycles; I outline the pros and cons of the thirty-six bikes I have owned, and describe some of the characters I become connected with along the way. It is probably the most personally revealing book I have written and is aimed at telling the story of an era which will shock, amaze and hopefully appeal to people who lived that same type of life.
As a man who clearly likes to travel, how frustrating did you find the lockdowns and how was your time spent?
I actually didn’t mind the first summer as I live on a small farm and I got to work on a lot of projects that had been started on and then left unfinished, mostly mechanical as well as some building and garden maintenance. I did find this last winter hard, as I don’t like the cold much anyway and there was just no form of respite.
Any travel plans for later this year?
If we get the green light then my next two motorbike trips will be exploring the Balkans and on to the Black Sea, then touring the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco, which has been a dream in waiting for quite some years.
What advice would you give to readers about making the most of their time on this sweet earth?
I would say have more than one plan and don’t be afraid to drop a bad idea, as we don’t have time to get around to everything we may wish for. Don’t go and do something just because it seems popular at the time, a real adventure should be hard work, but something you will want to talk about for the rest of your life.