I Didn't Do It for You

Chapter One

The City Above the Clouds

'That thin air had a dream-like texture, matching the porcelainblue of the sky, with every breath and every glance he took in a deep anaesthetising tranquillity.'

Lost Horizons, James Hilton

Whenever I land in Asmara, a novel read in adolescence comes to mind. It tells the story of a small plane whose pilot turns hijacker. Crash-landing in a remote part of the Himalayas, he dies of his injuries before he can explain his bizarre actions to the dazed passengers. They emerge from the wreckage to be greeted by a wizened old monk, who leads them to a citadel hidden above the peaks, a secret city whose existence has never been recorded on any map. They are welcomed to Shangri-La, where, breathing the chill air that wafts from the glaciers and surveying the world from a tremendous height, they begin reassessing their lives with the same calm detachment and cosmic clarity as the monks. But as time goes by, they learn they must ... read full excerpt from I Didn't Do It for You ebook