Mainly books about life and death in the Philippines , essays on diving, and Jay's travel stories
Marlon Maclean wrote The Tale of Puppy when he was 9 and a bit years old. He did everything except the contents page, which his dad added. We published copies for his school library (the Beacon School, probably the best elementary school in the Philippines), his teachers and some relatives.
In the book, puppy and friends have an amazing adventure. Catapaulted from their barnyard, they travel around the world in bizarre circumstances, meeting friends along the way as they analyze coded clues in the search for a treasure, fight horrible beasts, and support one another through thick and thin. There are 23 Chapters in the 98 page book, which ends in "To be continued!" Fast-moving action and pretty cool writing from a 9-year old. Here are some extracts.
In a Perfect Ocean is a factual book about fisheries and ecosystems in the North Atlantic Ocean that Jay wrote with Daniel Pauly in connection with Daniel's project The Sea Around Us at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. It was an important book in describing, for the first time, an entire depleted ocean. The book was launched at the White House in Washington DC in 2003. Jay is still getting a few dollars in royalties so it must be still available from Island Press, the publishers.
The Melon Patch describes 20 years of mainly weekend living by a tropical sea in Anilao, south of Manila, Philippines. This book covers a host of topics about provincial living, from building techniques to living with termites, from marine biology to oceanography, and from ants to neighbors to vulcanism. Self-published, the book is sprinkled with photos over its 385 pages. Click here for some extracts.
The Melon Patch is actually the eighth and last of a set of volumes Jay wrote about his life, mainly about the latter half up to the point where he died--but only for a few minutes--in a diving accident in May 2007. His memory was never good but he had heaps of photos and letters and put everything together over the space of a full year, August 2006-July 2007. The diving accident made him feel almost mortal, so he decided to self -publish the set. There are nine 6" x 9" books in the 8 volume set, totaling nearly 2,600 pages, printed in the last quarter of 2007 and sent to family and friends.
Volume 1, 1944-1965 (212 p.), describes growing up in changeless Randwick, NSW, Australia, attending Waverley College and then the University of New South Wales, but mostly body surfing and playing music.
Cover picture: Jay at the piano, aged 6.
Click here for a brief extract.
Volume 2, 1966-1979 (207 p.), describes postgraduate student life in Brisbane, marriage, working in Papua New Guinea during 1972-1974, Canberra, 1974-1978, and Sydney 1978-1979, and ends in Jay's divorce .
Cover picture: Jay's sketch of his student home in Spring Hill, Brisbane.
Volume 3, 1980-1989 (379 p.), describes his new life in an international fisheries research institution in Manila, Philippines, and travels around the world, remarriage, and the 1986 Philippine revolution, ending with the December 1989 attempted coup against the Philippine Government.
Cover picture: Papier mache "gigante" at Angono, near Manila, Philippines.
Volume 4, 1990-1993 (382 p.), contains mainly travel stories and details of life in Manila, and ends with the incipient demise of a fine international research institution.
Cover picture: Late afternoon view of offshore islands from El Nido, northern Palawan, Philippines.
Volume 5, 1994-1996 (309 p.), describes more traveling in Europe and Southeast Asia, the birth of Marlon--the new era--and some Maclean genealogy.
Cover picture: Duart Castle, the Maclean ancestral home on the Isle of Mull, Scotland.
Volume 6, part 1, 1997-2003 (220 p.), describes the beginning of Jay's third life, as an independent consultant, memorable trips to the Galapagos Islands and Italy, and some light Filipiniana.
Cover picture: Jay with his 1999 oil painting of a pufferfish at his exhibition in the Australian Embassy that year, Manila.
Volume 6, part 2, 2004-2006 (257 p.), has more about life in the Philippines as well as some philosophical essays. It ends with Jay's attempt to describe his own philosophy of life, with a postscript that includes his "death" in a diving accident--the beginning of a fourth life.
Cover picture: Jay windsurfing near Anilao, Philippines, in 2006. This photo by Tom Powell.
Volume 7. (215 p.) The first half of this volume contains nearly 50 articles about diving, mainly to bring science to divers; many have been published in diving magazines. Click here to view the whole collection. The latter half is almost all cartoons and comic strips, some published. Some appear also in a website by a mysterious Doctor "Pongase".The final piece is a short illustrated book Jay wrote for children about life "In Tropical Seas"--still waiting to be published. It describes the marine animals and plants one sees on the beach, the shallows, the coral reefs and beyond. In case someone is interested, click on In Tropical Seas for a low resolution view.
First book! Jay wrote this book on the Potential of Aquaculture in Australia when he worked for the then Australian Department of Agriculture. It was published by the Fisheries Division of that Department in 1975. (7"x10", 133 p., hardcover).
