Goodreads asked Jon Franklin:

What mystery in your own life could be a plot for a book?

Jon Franklin A few months after graduating from university with a degree in Photography, I was trying to find my feet again, back out in the real world. Between jobs, I spent a short period signing on. Out of the blue, I received an invitation out of no where to spend a week as the Official Photographer of People and Events for the 1996 running of the Dubai World Cup! I must have been the only member of the British media staying at the Dubai Hilton as a guest of his Royal Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum who was signing on at the time. I had about forty-five quid to last me the week, which explained my rather large room service bill. Luckily a bus shuttle ran me too and from the racecourse each day and something I was able to keep my 'job status' secret from all around me. Talk about 'playing a part' it was all quite surreal. The role I was given was a status thing; it wasn't actually paid - so I wasn't breaking any rules as such and later work did come from it. Not sure this would be a great plot for a book particularly - a short story, perhaps - but it did feel something of a mystery that I was there supposedly living the 'high life' when my own stays back home in England was anything but!

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