Robert Crisp’s Zen and the Art of Donkey Maintenance, soon to be published by Bloomsbury Books, is a strange affair.

A sportsman and a war hero, with a long track record of poor discipline and even worse business sense, in December 1966 Bob Crisp abandoned his wife and two sons and, with 65 pounds in his pocket, made himself scarce.
He moved to a small hut in Greece, where he lived alone, communing with nature, on his ten pounds war veteran pension.

He also had an agreement with a newspaper, and he published a diary of sorts, in installments, under an alias.

Zen… is a collection of those newspaper columns, edited and arranged by Crisp’s somewhat estranged son. The pieces cover Crisp’s experiences both in Greece and during his donkey-assisted travel on foot around the island of Crete. Continue reading →