The Left-Hander’s Survival Guide

THE LEFT-HANDER’S SURVIVAL GUIDE IS AVAILABLE NOW!

In February this year, I sat down with a vague idea for a short, humorous little book about the oddities of being left-handed.

It began, as many things do, with a memory.

A crayon being moved from hand to hand.

That became Chapter One: The Crayon Incident. From there, the book unfolded surprisingly quickly. Every chapter seemed to lead naturally into another small observation, another story, another adaptation. Scissors. Fountain pens. Watches. Guitar strings. Classroom desks. The strange choreography of sitting at a dinner table.

What surprised me most was how personal the book became.

What started as a light-hearted collection of essays about left-handedness gradually turned into something broader: reflections on childhood, creativity, memory, culture, travel, faith, music, and the quiet ways human beings adapt to systems that were not necessarily designed with them in mind.

Some chapters made me laugh while writing them. Others caught me unexpectedly off guard.

There is a chapter about running, and a PE teacher who quietly encouraged me when school often felt difficult. Another about learning to navigate roads in Nepal, where “left” and “right” suddenly became more complicated than I had expected. The final chapter — The Fountain Pen Redemption — became something of a meditation on creativity itself: how messy the process of making things often is, and why that mess is not failure, but evidence that something real is happening.

The whole project developed with unusual momentum. Normally, my ideas arrive enthusiastically and then sit unfinished in folders, notebooks, or boxes beneath the bed. This one kept moving. Each chapter suggested the next. The structure emerged naturally. Even the illustrations — simple ink sketches accompanying each chapter — seemed to arrive at the right moment.

Designing the book became part of the writing process itself. I wanted it to feel tactile and thoughtful. Something quiet. Something that looked like it belonged beside a notebook or fountain pen.

There is also a dedication to my father near the end of the book. That section may be the most important thing I wrote.

The result is The Left-Hander’s Survival Guide: Living Counter-Clockwise in a Clockwise World — a small book about orientation, adaptation, and occasionally getting ink on your fingers.

The hardback and paperback editions are now available from all good book sellers, and some bad ones. But it’s probably easiest to order directly from the publisher, or directly from me.