M W Taylor’s Keep Moving or Die is a lively and candid memoir of a man who’s spent much of his life looking for the next challenge. Taylor begins with a childhood shaped by his father’s Scientology beliefs, a house crowded with his collections, and years in a children’s home alongside his brother Bevis. He tells these stories with sharp detail and a dry sense of humour, while making room for the people who showed the boys kindness.

Photography gives the book its path through the wider world. Taylor takes his camera into the Honduran jungle, onto cruise ships, and eventually to crime scenes during his long career with the Metropolitan Police. His account of photographing the aftermath of the Thai tsunami shows both his practical skill and his desire to help families find answers. Throughout, his curiosity about places and people makes the journey enjoyable to follow.

The most affecting passages bring him back to family. Taylor writes openly about his complicated feelings toward his parents, the end of his marriage, and the care he took to stay close to Holly and Adam. Later, facing cancer and building a new working life on film sets, he’s still restless and funny. His time standing in for Daniel Craig on No Time to Die is a particular delight, full of the waiting, nerves, and small triumphs behind a glamorous production.

Photographs and remembered conversations give this memoir the warmth of someone telling you his story across a table. Its closing pages are especially moving: after revisiting his childhood, Taylor finds a more generous way to understand his mother’s attempts to reach him. Taylor spent a lifetime chasing the next horizon, and this memoir finds its heart in the people who made him want to come home.

Pages: 319 | ASIN : B0GSNXYRRG