Lost in Tibet

Lost in Tibet - by Richard Starks and Miriam Murcutt

The following interview with the authors is based on Frequently Asked Questions that they have fielded on researching, writing and publishing.

Question: The two of you spent three years writing Lost in Tibet. What made you want to invest that amount of time in this book? Why was it so appealing to you?

Richard Starks: Because of the story. On one level it's a thrill-a-minute adventure story about five Americans who are forced to bail out of their plane just seconds before it crashes. They think they're going to land somewhere in India or China, but instead they find themselves stranded high on a mountain - at something close to 16,000 feet - which is right in the heart of Tibet. So how are they going to get themselves out of there? How are they going to survive?

Miriam Murcutt: Plus they are forced to learn how to deal with the Tibetan people. You have to remember that at the time - this was in 1943 - only a handful of Westerners had ever been to Tibet, and the first Tibetans the airmen encountered - a whole village of them - had never seen any Westerners before. So along with the adventure, you have a parallel story of cultural conflict - two groups of people coming together, and each one having no understanding at all of how the other functions.

RS: The contrast could not have been greater. On one side, you have five American airmen, who have literally dropped out of the sky. They represent the industrial world at a time when every major nation had geared its economy towards war. And on the other side, you have the compassionate and introspective Tibetans, who were still living in a feudal society and who, more often than not, didn't even know a war was being fought. So those were the two elements of the story that first attracted us - the adventure and the cultural conflict.

MM: But then after we'd started digging a little deeper, we found that there was a third strand to the story, one we hadn't suspected was there. It was a political element, which revealed itself when we discovered that while the Americans were in Tibet, they were caught up in the political infighting that even then was raging around Tibet's determination to be independent from China.

RS: That gave the story a relevance to events that are happening today, because it tied the book into the Tibetan struggle for independence that is still very much alive. So this third element of the story wasn't just an unexpected bonus; it was clearly also a key part of the book.

Question: So how did you manage to research the story?

MM: Well, it was a mix of luck, some good judgment and a lot of sleuthing. For example, we found that the India Office of the British Library in London has extensive records covering Lhasa in the 1940s. We went through all those records and were able to find a number of invaluable references to the five airmen whose story we were telling. We made several trips to London where we read reams of hand-written documents tied together with bits of pink ribbon.

RS: We also tracked down a lot of people we wanted to interview - like members of the airmen's families. That took some hard detective work, but it really paid off. The families were incredibly helpful, giving us access to their personal papers, letters, telegrams and photos, as well as filling us in on the airmen's early lives, so we could flesh out their characters and find out more about what kind of people they were.

Question: So has the book been well received?

MM: Yes, it has. And that's been one of the most gratifying parts of the whole venture. We spent three years burrowing away on this book, and what happens is, you become totally focused on it. But every now and then, you lift your head just enough to wonder, 'will anyone else find what we're doing as fascinating as we do?' So when the reviews started to come in, we were really thrilled.

RS: We knew from the start that we had a great story in our hands. The challenge for us was to make sure we told it well. As far as I'm concerned, a good book is one with a good story that is told well. It's as simple as that. And that's what we aimed to produce.

Question: So you liked the reviews?

MM: So far, so good. One review said it was "a gripping detailed account." Another described it as "a 'must-read'". And Kirkus Reviews said it was "for fans of Into Thin Air."

RS: We've also had quite a few readers emailing us to say how much they enjoyed reading the book. That's been gratifying, too. Of course, even before the manuscript went to the publisher, we asked a number of people to give us their comments - like some of the pilots who flew the route that the airmen took, as well as many of the Tibetan exiles who now live in the States. Their comments were extremely positive, which helped give our confidence a boost and confirm that we were on the right track.

Question: So how do two people manage to write one book?

RS: Well, writing a book these days - especially a non-fiction one - involves so much more than just 'writing'. There's a huge amount of research to be done, so you can determine exactly what the story is and how it should best be told. You need to develop a vast amount of detail that relates not just to the story itself, but also to the background, so you can tie the story to a particular time and place.

MM: Then there's the whole business of finding a publisher and guiding the manuscript through the publishing process so you get a book that you actually like. There's plenty of work to go around, more than enough for two people.

Question: So will you be writing another book together?

RS: We already are. I find writing is like an addiction. You get hooked, for reasons that defy common sense. I think it's the hope that, one day, you might be able to write the perfect word, the perfect sentence, or even, if you're lucky, as much as a perfect paragraph - that keeps you coming back for more.

Question: I know you've written fiction as well as non-fiction. Which do you think is easier?

RS: I don't think either one is easy, although you try and make it look easy, so that the reader isn't forced to do your work for you. The fact is they're both hard, but in different ways With fiction, the problem is you have to make everything up; while with non-fiction, the problem is you can't make anything up. I don't think two people could write fiction together, because nearly everything comes out of the writer's head. It's different with non-fiction, because, like we said, the story is somewhere 'out there', so before you can write it, someone has to go and get it.

MM: From my point of view, finding the story, getting the right people to talk to you, and getting them to let you into their lives - that's an enormously rewarding experience, and one that carries a lot of responsibility with it.

Question: So I gather that Lost in Tibet was worth all the effort?

RS: Yes. Absolutely. Although there were days when we would have been happy to forget all about it and to have become lost in Tibet ourselves.

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