The Butterfly Effect – Jon Ronson

I cannot recommend enough Jon Ronson’s newest venture, The Butterfly Effect – an audio series currently available for free on Amazon and Audible.

I’m a big fan of Ronson’s books, and the series offers an engaging insight into the effect of a single person’s actions on both the entire pornography industry and the users of porn.

The idea of exploring butterfly effects is one that could run and run, across multiple topics. I’ve often thought about the remarkable – though commonplace – effect of single decisions on multiple lives, and I suppose I’m kicking myself that I didn’t think of doing a similar podcast.

For example, over a decade ago, a young family was looking through an au pair agency’s book to find a suitable candidate. They chose a young Polish woman, who duly came to the UK and got on so well with the family that essentially she became a part of it. After the children had reached school age, she decided to remain in the country, so she got a job in Manchester. That’s when we met. We got engaged eighteen months later, married after a two-year engagement, and have just celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary.

But that decision didn’t just affect the lives of my wife and I. Shortly after we met, a cousin of one of my wife’s best friends came over to England from Poland and we helped her to find a place to live. She met one our colleagues during after-work drinks, they fell in love, and they are now married with two fantastic children.

It’s incredible to think how many lives have been changed – and created – from that one choice, all those years ago: just a few people flicking through an album of photos…

The Amazing Nicole J. Georges

Recently I chanced upon a fantastic graphic novel, Calling Dr Laura, by Nicole J. Georges. It was an example of perfect timing, because the book was published in 2013 and Georges’ second book, Fetch, was published a few months ago. As such, I had the luxury of being able to read them both pretty much one after the other. Of course it does make the wait for the next book quite unbearable…

Both Calling Dr Laura and Fetch are great graphic novels. Calling Dr Laura is essentially an autobiography about family secrets, whereas Fetch is about the role of Georges’ pet dog, Beja, in her life and the nature of caring for other living things. They’re very personal, very moving, and very, very good.

Being black and white, and very obviously hand-drawn (this is not a criticism), the books have a fanzine quality to them, which is unsurprising given that Georges has been drawing and self-publishing comics for years. Black and white comics, like black and white films, can sometimes be off-putting to people accustomed to colour, but I promise that it’s the perfect choice for these books.

Calling Dr Laura and Fetch are the sort of comics that both inspire me to pick up a pencil to create my own comics but also terrify me because I know I will never be as good as her. I mean, how does someone create such a beautiful 300-plus page book crammed full of gorgeous illustrations? The amount of talent that requires is really quite incredible, and it’s why I love comics: they are the products of hard work and talent.

Please give these books a go. I seriously doubt that you will be disappointed.