FROM the operating theatre to spending hours in front of his laptop, local vascular surgeon, Dr Richard Harris, has ventured into the world of writing with the publication of his first novel, ‘Imagine’.
The novel, based on the acclaimed song by John Lennon, seeks to provide a perfect utopian view of the world whilst examining the worst bits of the world.
“It is an incredibly radical song,” Dr Harris says.
“I am not that radical but to do justice to the song, I had to convert the song into a novel.”
‘Imagine’ is made up of a series of intertwining stories. Imagery and dreams are woven in a number of love stories that roll back on each other like verses and the chorus of a song.
“It is a series of love stories which contain a few villains in it,” Dr Harris says.
“It is very descriptive and very geographic as it is set in a lot of different countries.”
As a surgeon, it was virtually impossible to write a book in the first twenty years of Dr Harris’ career. He worked out that he would have to either take two years off or figure out another arrangement if he was to pursue his dream of writing a novel.
“I figured out that I had reasonably inefficient weeks going from one set of rooms to another,” Dr Harris says.
Dr Harris decided to reduce his room locations and contract all his surgeries into the first three days of the week whilst dedicating Thursdays and Fridays to writing. He would spend the mornings on his writing days entirely on research for ‘Imagine’.
“If I was doing a chapter on Mexico, it would be all about some tiny little town and the geography and problems they faced,” Dr Harris says.
“The Coca Cola factory built in the 1950’s basically ruined the health of the people living in this town in Mexico. There were issues stemming from childhood obesity and diabetes and all these terrible consequences of these commercial decisions.”
After having done five hours of research in the morning, Dr Harris would usually grab lunch before coming back to write about 1500 words in the afternoon. It took him about four and a half years of doing that to finish ‘Imagine’.
Dr Harris credits his wife, who sadly passed away last year from breast cancer, for allowing him the time and space to devote to the writing process,
“My wife held the fort. She allowed me that time to go and just be on my own somewhere nice to write,” Dr Harris says.
Dr Harris has also been a long-time advocate for the local community through his role as chairman of the medical staff council at Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital. In this role, he was pivotal in advocating to both the state and federal governments for funding for much needed upgrades to the hospital.
Whilst still undertaking surgeries, Dr Harris is in the process of finishing his second novel. Without giving too much away he reveals that it is a historical romance based on medieval times.
“I have taken the real history and added shades of fantasy. I do want to make the bits that are history in it to be really accurate,” says Dr Harris.
Dr Richard Harris’ novel ‘Imagine’ can be purchased online on Amazon as well local bookstores including Berkelouw Hornsby, Dymocks Chatswood and Novella Fine Books Wahroonga.
For further information, head to richardaharris.com.
Head on over to our Connecting Oz Bookclub to read our review.
