They told me I had 18 months to live. Nothing was more important than finishing my book | Andrew Darby

Diagnosed with lung cancer, author Andrew Darby found hope in the endurance of ultramarathon shorebirds - and the book he was writing about themFlight Lines: the heroic story of two migratory shorebirdsRead more about Guardian Australia's Unmissable seriesI have a thing for motels. Out of all the choices we have today, I find these plain, predictable buildings a comforting way to be away from home. So as I lay in bed at the Beaumaris Bay Motel, harrowed by fantasies of death as I slept, and gasping for air when awake, at least I was in familiar surroundings.Embarking on my book Flight Lines I took among wildlife literature as a guiding light The Great Soul of Siberia, Sooyong Park's quest for the Siberian tiger. Park's philosophy was that nature was to be observed and not directed. He sentenced himself to life hidden in a little hand-dug bunker, snowbound for months beside a wildlife trail on a remote mountain range, in exchange for minutes of tiger. Continue reading...