JOEL GRIFFETT

Pre-order ‘Long Road to Nowhere: The Lost Years of Richard Trevithick (Part One)’ now, HERE.

This blog isn’t dead, I am just trying to work out what to write to keep you all engaged. I have been very busy putting together the first book, due for release on Saturday 27^th April, so that means almost all the stories I gleaned from the deserts of Chile and the high plains of Bolivia have been reserved for paper rather than the blog.

But I have spent many hours writing this blog and it would be a shame for it to wither and die while I focus on something altogether more momentous. Many have subscribed and a thousand different people from all over the world have visited the site. In the grand scheme of the internet, that isn’t much and I know this is something I can improve upon, but it still brings me great satisfaction to know that this rather niche piece of history has gathered interest already as I accelerate towards self-publishing my first book in 2024.

I will continue to use the blog as a base, or a foundation for my future endeavours. The pre-order link should be live by the end of January, and I will pin it to the front page. My intention is also to start posting here again at least once a week up to and beyond the end of next April. With the sorcery of Google’s search rankings on my side I can grow the following and drum up more interest in the book which, by the way, has been renamed:

Long Road to Nowhere: The Lost Years of Richard Trevithick (Part One)

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Since the last update, I took a survey of people’s reading habits and the results were very interesting. It seems that few people own Kindles or read eBooks and similarly, not many people listen to audiobooks, which I found surprising. Instead, the overwhelming majority of people who answered the questions said they preferred reading books above all else and I too agree with them, so the focus now is the first print run, available to pre-order online for delivery or for sale at Trevithick Day in April.

Between now and April its all systems go; I begin a Research Master’s in History at the Institute of Cornish Studies (Uni of Exeter) in January, studying the wealth of archival material I found pertaining to Trevithick in Costa Rica in depth for the first time ever. Shortly after I begin the course, I am returning to Peru for six weeks to continue with the more speculative side of my research, trying to uncover some of the fascinating mysteries of Trevithick’s liaisons with the great Simon Bolivar and the ‘Sea Wolf’ Thomas Cochrane amongst other stories. Trevithick witnessed the Peruvian revolution first hand before disappearing north, but his trail is a hard one to find. There is a mountain of information available from 1817 to 1823, but owing to the more important currents of independence, Trevithick is buried beneath that mountain. As usual, it is my job to extract all I can.

To summarise, I haven’t forgotten about the blog, I’ve just been focusing on other things. Normal service will resume shortly but for now: Merry Christmas!