Black Cloud
Case Sensitive
The Quickening Maze
I think mental illness would have probably been diagnosed, but it is possible. You're absolutely right that he was ill-prepared for his journey - a 10lb bag of rice and other oddments is woefully inadequate for surviving in the wild. The imdb story is very interesting, I've never heard of that. The extras on the DVD are very good, his parents and family were on set for part of the filming, as were some of his friends, so I reckon much of the film was as authentic as possible. All of the filming was shot in the actual places he visited. I'm not sure if he had a death wish, though. He did try to leave the wilderness, but the river was too dangerous to try to cross. Shame he didn't keep his map, and tragic that he ate the wrong plant seeds. At least he tried.
I'm re-reading for around the third time "Adam's Breed" by Radclyffe Hall. It possibly has the honour of being my favourite book of all time, and I've read many many books. Readers of Hall always acknowledge her novel "The Well of Loneliness", but I've found that a drab old read. This is much better.
The copy I've borrowed from the library has old date due stamp and borrower's card record in the back of the book. Of course library books are all bar-coded for issuing these days, but it's nice to find reminders in today's world of a pre-silicon chip that it wasn't always like this.
Finished reading "The Search For The Perfect Pub : Looking For The Moon Under Water" by Paul Moody and Robin Turner. The authors go searching around England for the mythical perfect pub as described by George Orwell's "Looking For The Moon Under Water".
It's a great read on a subject close to my heart. There is a interview in the book with Pete Wylie and James Dean Bradfield where they talk about what their favourite pubs mean to them. Would have been great to have had Morrissey talk about The Vauxhall and why he liked it. Although Moody used to write for the NME, so there might be a grudge there
It's heartening to see that there is a swing back to pubs without Euro fizz on tap, overly loud music, pub quizzes and gastro pubs.
Sounds just my cup of tea.