Emil Rem
From the age of twelve, Emil flew the world alone on standby. Moscow or Rio, he never knew which. Today the accountant from Calgary writes it all down: three illustrated books, and a new story most weeks.
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Chasing Aphrodite · the first book, 2021
Three illustrated books, published in Calgary by EICA Press.
Every chapter comes with its own illustration.
From England to Africa, from Canada to Cyprus.
Every leg of Emil's life began with a ticket somebody else handed him. Tear them off one at a time.
FromDAR ES SALAAM✈ToMAIDENHEAD
Born into a close-knit, middle-class Ismaili Muslim family in Dar es Salaam in the fifties. At five his mother, who held impossible ambitions, divorced his father and moved to England with Emil in tow.
FromA NURSES' HOSTEL✈ToA FOSTER HOME
The only work his mother could find was as a trainee nurse, and she could not look after him. An English working-class family volunteered to take him in until she found him a permanent home. The initial two weeks turned into twelve years.
FromLONDON AIRPORT✈ToWHEREVER HAS A SEAT
“I would arrive at London airport with a carry-on bag and a wad of tickets and take whichever airline had space available. I could be in Moscow or Rio de Janeiro, I never knew. Nor did my family.”
FromLONDON✈ToAROUND THE WORLD
For his seventeenth birthday his father, who worked for East African Airways, sent him a round-the-world ticket. His mother scraped together £50. “You'll have to come back as soon as you run out.” As if he would.
FromENGLAND✈ToCALGARY
He emigrated to Calgary. It took six months to build a credit rating good enough to lease a television. He became an accountant, married Laura, and raised two boys, Alex and Chris, who drive him crazy and whom he loves dearly.
FromTHE TAX RETURNS✈ToTHE PAGE
After a long career as an accountant, Emil bucked his mother's advice and began publishing in his sixties. Three illustrated books followed, and a weekly story he has kept up for years.
It's not the chances you're given in life that matter. It's the choices you make.
Emil Rem
Personal memories, woven through history and travel. Pick a book off the shelf.
an·a·lects noun. A collection of short literary or philosophical extracts. “Not all ideas fit neatly into the pages of a book. When I see, hear or read something that moves me, I capture the thoughts it provokes by jotting them down.”
Pen and ink, drawn for the analects. Drag to look along the wall.
Short films of Emil telling the stories behind the books, plus the radio conversations he has given along the way.
From The Vanished Gardens of Cordova, chapter six
The small white stuccoed bungalow could have been transplanted from the very English council estate where he was brought up, but there was no mistaking the two. Behind the bungalow loomed the Rock of Gibraltar, rising through the mist like a colossus, blotting out the hazy early morning sunshine. The building was no humble dwelling but, according to their taxi driver, was the border checkpoint into Spain. There was no activity. Not a soul in sight. The entrance door was shut. He knocked and waited. No answer. He knocked again…