December's Writers' Showcase: Alain Li Wan Po

 

Alain Li Wan Po

So far in this series, I’ve showcased the talented writers Ruth Loten, Jane Langan, BeckCollett, Ron Hardwick, L.N.Hunter,   Katherine Blessan, Jill Saudek, Colin Johnson and Sue Davnall. You can find all these showcases by scrolling back through the material on this blog.

December’s showcase turns the spotlight onto Alain Li Wan Po , another member of the Twenty-Twenty Club, a writing group formed by the cohort of students who graduated from the Open University’s Masters in Creative Writing in 2020. Alain does not consider himself to be a ‘creative writer’, though he does write fiction and Creative Non-Fiction alongside his academic and other non-fiction writing. I had the pleasure of reviewing several chapters of a family memoir and history of China, written by him, a year or so ago, and I thought it was fascinating and beautifully-written.

Alain Li Wan Po

Biography

Alain Li Wan Po was born in Mauritius and, at the age of 19, he went to study pharmacy at The University of Bradford in England. He did his post-graduate training at St Thomas’s Hospital on the banks of the River Thames and at the University of London, where he obtained his PhD. During his final year of study there, he was appointed a Teaching Fellow, and worked as a locum pharmacist at various pharmacies in London.

After a few years lecturing at the University of Aston in Birmingham, he was appointed Professor of Pharmaceutics (drug formulation) at Queen’s University of Belfast at the age of 34, and subsequently Professor of Clinical Pharmaceutics at The Universities of Nottingham and Aston. He was then appointed Pharmacogenetics Lead at the National Genetics Education and Development Centre in Birmingham.

During much of his academic career, ALWP was Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics until his retirement two years ago. In preparation for this, he enrolled on various Creative Writing Courses including an MA in Creative Writing.

He has served as an external examiner at many leading national and international universities in pharmacy, medicine, and nutrition. He has been a consultant to several multinational pharmaceutical companies and has held several Professional fellowships including those of the Royal Society of Chemistry, The Royal Pharmaceutical Society and The Royal Statistical Society. In addition to pharmacy degrees, he holds degrees majoring in Maths, Statistics and Economics. He was recently appointed Honorary Member of The Royal Spanish Pharmaceutical Society and of the Academy of Pharmacy of Castille and León.

Alain lives in Nottingham. He has five grandchildren from four daughters who have their own homes in various parts of the UK, including Wales.  

Alain moderates the MedicineTrees Facebook Group focussing on medicines derived from plants:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/582447310461173)

 

He also has a website (www.MedicineTrees.com) with the same name.

 

More of his biography can be found on

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/alain-li-wan-po-9925084

 

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Rather than showing us a piece of conventional creative writing, Alain thought he would send in one illustrative of those he writes regularly for the public MedicineTrees Facebook Group. The posts are intended to inform and entertain on reported health benefits of plants:

The Pomelo, the granddaddy of citrus fruits

The pomelo (pummelo, pompelmoes, pamplemousse, Citrus maxima or Citrus grandis), the largest of the citrus fruits, is the grandaddy of many of the citrus fruits we so love. The pomelo, the citron (Citrus medica) and the mandarin (Citrus reticulata) make up the three main citrus groups. The Seville orange is a hybrid of the pomelo and the true mandarin, while the (sweet) orange (Citrus sinensis) is a hybrid of the pomelo and later mandarin admixtures. The lemon is a direct descendant of the citron. All three primary groups have their origins in Asia, a history often overlooked when we see the citrus so much at home in the Mediterranean countries. Archaeobotanical studies show that the citron, the first citrus to be introduced to the West, seemingly from Persia or the Southern Levant, reached a Persian garden near Jerusalem as early as the fifth or fourth century BC. The fruits had reached the Western Mediterranean by the next two centuries, with the rise of the Romans leading to the establishment of their empire in 31 BC.

To the Chinese, the arrival of the giant pomelo in the autumn brings much festive cheer at home and in their many diasporas. The pulp, eaten raw or added to a sweet milk base, makes a delicious seasonal dessert with its trace of grapefruit bitterness and satisfying crunch. Try it. Exclusive Chinese restaurants sometimes serve it, off menu, to their favoured clients. Although the fruit is still unfamiliar to many in the West, it is slowly finding its way to major European supermarkets where they can be found in November or December. One pomelo is enough to satisfy six people at the table.

The photos show how best to peel it. Enjoy.

The health benefits?

In Asia, tea brews of the leaves, flowers or rind are used as a sedative, in a similar way to chamomile. Compresses or decoctions of the leaf are applied to swellings and ulcers. The fruit juice is said to lower fever and the seeds are employed against coughs, dyspepsia, and lumbago. Does it work? I suspect, only if you believe hard enough. I have not found any hard evidence. I am sure it is an effective placebo for self-resolving illnesses. Just enjoy it and think of la dolce vita.

Beware though, the fruit in common with other citrus fruits, notably the grapefruit, contains substances that inhibit some metabolic enzymes involved in the elimination of some medicines. This may lead to increased blood levels. So, if you are on medication, before you indulge, check with your pharmacist or doctor.

Photo Credits: ALWP CEBP. Photos showing the relative sizes of the pomelo and various fruits (Grapefruit, sweet orange, Seville orange, mandarin from left to right) and stages in the undressing of the pomelo.

Comment from Louise: Well, I don't know about you, but that made me want to scour the shops to find a pomelo.

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And finally we come to The Big

 Interview, in which Alain kindly answers 

writing-related questions and lets us 

into some of his writing secrets...

How old were you when you first knew you wanted to be a writer, and what set you off down that journey?

I don’t think there was ever a point when I thought of writing as a career. As a young child, I enjoyed stories being read to me by my older sister, who was ten years my senior. She read storybooks written in Chinese which she translated verbally into Creole. I always pleaded for more. My mother could neither read nor write but she was determined that her children would.

I was lucky to be born on the island of Mauritius where multilingualism is the norm. Sadly, I never learnt to speak or write Chinese, but I became reasonably fluent in French and English. So I was exposed to both English and French literature from a young age from Daudet and Baudelaire to Maupassant and Molière and crossing over to Dickens and Conan Doyle to Shakespeare and Wordsworth. 

I must have enjoyed writing because, at the age of 11/12, I had a short poem on the beauty of Mauritius accepted by the Junior Digest, a magazine for children published in England. I wish I had kept a copy. I remember writing something about ‘having no riches but surrounded by golden beaches.’ No one had ever taught me poetry at that age, but I liked the rhyming and the feeling of being happy surrounded with natural beauty and enjoying whatever little you had. I still try to live by that motto and continue deriving much joy from admiring nature.

 

Tell us about the books and writers that have shaped your life and your writing career.

Most of the books I read as a youngster were part of my examination courses, but I often strayed. 'Tintern Abbey' was one of the poems assigned for my Cambridge School Certificate course, but I became hooked on Wordsworth. Shakespeare, I found very hard, but I enjoyed Romeo and Juliet, although it was a play I had to study for my exams. It is only in recent years that I have discovered Shakespeare’s awesome multi-layered writing. His ‘Wormwood, wormwood’ and his ‘Heartsease’ has taken on new meanings. 

For short stories, I think Maupassant is hard to beat. And Molière plays? To me, they are as fascinating as Shakespeare, and Daudet’s Provence is as sweet as the real thing. How can such gifted writers bring to life what you feel so well? I draw inspiration from the classical writers’ love of nature. Perhaps that is why I am still drawn to modern writers such as Barry Lopez and Robert Macfarlane.

As a child, walking home from school, I often stopped by a bookstore that sold cheap UNESCO publications, usually for two rupees (~15 pence at the time) to make them accessible in poor countries. I bought biographies and science books from there and still remember a moustached Albert Schweitzer as a frontispiece in one of the no-frill books with the defining bland black and white covers. It took a while to save two rupees as our pocket money, given erratically, was 15 cents daily.

All this varied reading must have shaped my writing, so much so that I am still not sure about the genre of writing I should concentrate on.

 

Have your children, other family members, friends or teachers inspired any of your writing?

At home, as the youngest but one of six, I was fortunate in having books owned by my gifted older siblings who were good at winning book-prizes at school. They had subscriptions to the US Time Magazine, Paris Match, L’Express, and the Readers’ Digest which were always stacked on our tables as they are today in GP surgeries and at hairdressers. Science always fascinated me and one of my teachers was impressed by my knowledge of astronomy. Little did he know that my answers to his questions were often from the Times magazine I had read the night before, probably the same articles that inspired his questions. Haha! Little genius indeed. My oldest brother went to study medicine in Ireland at the age of 17 and from there he sent us a beautifully bound A4 richly illustrated Bible that provided me with many hours of reading from one of the oldest storybooks.

            As migrants, my parents had a rich and complex family history which I think is worth telling and I have started writing my parents’ biography set against the collapse of the last Chinese Empire and the rise of the British. Maybe, one day … but I have so many abandoned books in my filing cabinet. One more won’t do any harm. [Note by Louise: You really need to complete this book, Alain, as I found the opening chapters completely fascinating and beautifully-written]

 

Does the place you live now, or places where you have lived in the past, have any impact on your writing?

Yes indeed. Every new place I visit provides inspiration. The seasons in a tropical island are so different from those in northern Europe and the populations are so diverse in both culture and make-up. How can one not be affected? Travel broadens the mind, says the cliché. How true though. I remember how our neighbour slammed her door every time the aroma of my fried garlic wafted across from my rented London terraced house to hers along the shared alley where we both had our separate outside loos. Today, vindaloo is of course a favourite staple in Britain. I grew up with mountains, sea, sun, and cyclones in a multicultural society where we generally maintained our cultures but enjoyed those of others with almost equal measure, a place where rich and poor lived cheek-by-jowl in shacks and mansions. Shared communities develop shared values and shape one’s thinking and writing, and I am not immune.

 

How would you describe your own writing?

Constipating. I have been a science and academic writer for many years and was good enough to be hired to write a blog about genetic advances for NHS staff. I have even held science writing seminars. In such writing, facts take precedence over style. I realised that to reach a wider readership, I needed to develop other skills and, to this end, I have taken many courses in Creative Writing when the fees were cheap, but I am not confident that I have mastered the required skills yet. Writing as well as HG Wells or Michael Crichton is still an aspiration. I am still at an experimental stage in deciding whether I am a creative nonfiction writer or novelist. I must like short stories too because I am drawn to writing book-chapters as stand-alone sections.

I think it is easier to write fiction as you are not constrained by the need to be factual. Several of my critical readers who have seen sections of the planned biography of my parents have suggested that I should convert it into fiction as the tools of creative nonfiction that I used got in the way. I am resisting as the book is a bit of a labour of love for my departed parents. I want those potential readers who knew them, or are related to them, to know that what I am describing are real snapshots of their lives.

 

Are there certain themes that draw you to them when you are writing?

I love nature and science and so my writing draws from both, heavily.  People, in all their complexities, are of course at the core of all great novels and biographies.

 

Tell us about how you approach your writing. Are you a planner or a pantser?

I think that I am a planner, but one not driven by structure. All happens in the head. I would normally create an electronic folder for what I may want to write about someday. In there, I would dump papers, titles, abstracts or striking phrases I come across plus figures and photos  that may be useful. It is a wasteful approach as most of the time, I would never use them. However, I would mull over the collections and then on a whim decide that I would write about something that had been in my head for a while. Without reading any collected material, I would draft a story and then later use the material I have collected to add the factual and the embellishments.

I have drafted a novel which I am now revising with the help of many friend readers. It is a depressing task as I stare at the weaknesses pointed out to me, but I have not given up. All the chapters were written without prior planning. Only the broad theme was planned. Each chapter was driven by the previous one(s).

For the planned biography of my parents, only potential chapter headings were written down, again with source material in electronic folders. Some new chapters arose as I wrote. For example, I have a chapter on my mother’s medicine cabinet, how folklore remedies shared the same shelf with modern medicines, much the same way across cultures, except of course that ginseng and ayapana leaves may swap places with chamomile tea and dill gripe-waters.

 

Do you have any advice for someone who might be thinking about starting to write creatively?

No, no, no … said the Lady. No too from me. I am still exploring. Keep thinking, keep plotting. Start with one sentence, I say to myself each time I sit at my desk. One day, who knows?

 

Are you, or have you been in the past, a member of any writing groups, online or face-to-face?

Yes, I have a face-to-face group consisting of fellow-students from an early writing group that that meet irregularly usually to share a cuppa and to commiserate on our lack of progress. I also have an online group ably and generously supported by Lou. [Thanks, Alain!] It is encouraging to hear about the success of those in the group when spirits are low and words fail to flow for their breakthroughs suggest that there is hope yet.

 

You have an MA in Creative Writing. Have you studied creative writing on other formal courses?

I have followed several formal courses but none as extensive as those leading to the MA in Creative Writing. Online learning is challenging.

 

What do you think about getting feedback on your work from other writers and/or non-writers?

I always ask for critical and honest feedback from fellow-students. I am never confident about my own writing. Critical readers are essential. As an academic, I am used to adverse feedback. Rejection of research papers are part of the norm, and the rejection of research grant applications is soul-destroying but part of the job. Academic publishers are, in my experience, always polite. Some editors become friends. Popular book publishers and agents are at the other end of the spectrum. I have yet to adjust to a world of non-response, and still fail to understand why virtually all of them still treat potential writers with seemingly such disdain when an automated response is so easy to generate. I have been a science journal editor-in-chief for many years, and I always thought it polite to answer every potential author, even when they had not obviously read your Guide to Authors. 

In academic science writing, much of the inter-communication between author and reader is left to the latter. Einstein did not have to convey the beauty and full impact of E = mc², sometimes dubbed the most beautiful equation ever written, although he was a wonderful writer and communicator. It seems to me that in creative writing, unless the first sentence or paragraph grabs, the reader is lost to the novice writer although not necessarily to the established writers who have, through their reputation, earned time-investment potential.  

 

If you have experience of self-publishing, what have been its challenges and rewards? 

After publication of several academic books by traditional publishers, I was emboldened to try self-publishing a few years ago. Although I earned as much as I did through traditional publishing, I think, humbly, that the book never achieved its commercial potential. There were too many barriers to entry. Unlike established publishers, I had no access to international distributors and their commercial links. For example, one of my traditionally published books was awarded a silver medal and 2000 copies were sold in bulk to a pharmaceutical manufacturer for free distribution. Such opportunities are never realistically open to self-publishers. Would I try with my future creative writing output? The acceptance rate by established publishers is so low for new authors that I may well try but I have not mustered the courage, or the belief that I would earn anything from such a venture, yet. 

 

Where do you get your ideas from?

I do not find generating ideas for books difficult. For academic books, I have entries and offers already but I have not taken any recent ones forward as I have yet to convince myself that the major efforts required would justify the returns, monetary or otherwise. For popular books too, ideas come easily. My problem is that of persuading others that they are ideas worth pursuing. Common prompts are items of breaking news in the papers or on TV. Sometimes major life events affecting both those close and far move me enough to want to write about them. Somewhere in my folders is a poem about refugees prompted by a harrowing photo of a young child lying dead on the shore. At other times, prompts are provided by breakthroughs in science or discovery. Plants and nature inspire me no end.

 

They say that successful writers need to be selfish. How far do you agree with this?

I am not sure I can answer this as I do not regard myself as a successful writer, but I am committed to try. I am selfish when I sit and write, cocooning myself in a world of my own. When ideas or specific phraseologies come to mind, I switch on the lights and jot them down no matter what time it is. I have been like this all my writing life. Writing research papers is intense and leaving this world for another is not unusual. I believe that it is a transferable skill when writing creatively too.

 

Beyond your family and your writing, what other things do you do?

I have travelled widely as an academic but not as a tourist except for the typical family holidays. As an academic, much of my overseas travel involved networking through lots of evening breakout seminars. My late wife used to accompany me but after a while she found these very boring as she was left on her own for much of the time. Even glamourous places like Singapore, Sydney and Japan become boring after several visits left on your own. More latterly, I have rediscovered the pleasure of travelling as a tourist, reconnecting with relatives and friends, kind and free enough to act as guides and fellow pleasure-seekers. In the past twelve months, I have visited friends and relatives in Mauritius, Canada, France, Spain, and Italy twice, in addition to travelling around the United Kingdom from Southend to London and Inverness via Wales, all on different trips. Seeking inspiration and photographs for my writing, I tell myself. Not much writing was done though. I can now write a book about navigating crazy additional charges and remaining sane when traveling on Ryanair!

I love country walks and gardening too for both inspiration and exercise. When my late wife fell seriously ill a few years ago, I took up cooking which has now morphed into a hobby not dissimilar to pharmaceutical compounding.

 

Would you describe yourself as a ‘cultured’ person?

This is best answered by those who know me well, but I probably am, at least a little. I read a lot and enjoy and respect other people’s cultures. I am often moved into humility by elite singers, painters, and writers. Ancient architecture, particularly represented by places of worship across religions, draws me in whenever I visit a new place.

 

Are you interested in history and if so does it impact on your writing?

History fascinates me. The history of us as humans, the history of empires, the history of science-fiction writing, the life history of the orange, the history of travel, the history of slavery, the history of everything really. Some critical readers have said that I cram in so much history in my writing that it sends them to sleep. I must learn from the likes of Simon Winchester, Ken Follett, and Dan Brown to do better. Did you know that our immune system records a complete history of all our encounters with foreign proteins? How our body responds keeps us safe (immunity) or makes us ill (hypersensitivity reactions). A metaphor for how we respond to migrants?

 

How did the Covid pandemic affect you as a writer?

 Covid had a positive impact on my writing. I drafted a complete book and started another during the pandemic. Whether they will be good enough to see the light of day is something else. I also wrote an article on how natural infection acts as a very effective natural vaccine, a phenomenon that even the ancient Chinese knew, and which led Jenner, von Behring, Pasteur among others to the development of modern vaccines and antibody therapy. I subsequently received several invitations to present at conferences and to write similar articles for science journals and even a book, suggesting that it was reasonably widely read. The COVID pandemic years also created in me a love for gardening and photography.

 

Where would you place your own stories/poems, on a continuum with PURE FANTASY at one end and COMPLETE REALISM at the other?

My writing is mostly about the real world but what’s wrong with some fantasy added in? As far as we can tell, humans are the only animals that can fantasise, at least the only ones who can tell you about it and take you along for the ride, the only ones who can dream about writing a good book and be humble enough to accept that failure is part of life. Some call it philosophy, others call it reality, not fantasy. 

 

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Thank you very much, Alain, for a brilliant and fascinating showcase. 

 

In January, I will showcase 

the wonderful and versatile writer

Lily Lawson

Not to be missed!