"WE MAKE A LIVING BY WHAT WE GET, BUT WE MAKE A LIFE BY WHAT WE GIVE"

Winston Churchill

The author will donate 12% of his royalties to support the excellent work of the three charitable organisations below (4% to each organisation).

Bristol Mind (UK registered charity no. 1085171) does excellent work to provide a range of high-quality services which are reflective and relevant to the needs of the mental health service user community around Bristol. They also combat stigma and promote a positive image of mental health. Mental and emotional health problems can happen to anyone, at any age and from any background. I truly believe that all of us are just a few bad turns in life away from needing this type of help. Don't kid yourself that it couldn't be you – divorce, bereavement, redundancy, abuse, repossession, etc. can happen to any of us, and it is often problems like those that lead to mental distress. Please visit www.bristolmind.org.uk.

Ben's Centre (UK registered charity no. 1087606) provides a 'damp' day service to street drinkers in Sheffield. It works to accept individuals where they are and acts as a bridge between an individual's chaotic street drinking lifestyle and one that enables them to fulfil their potential, whatever that may be. I was particularly impressed by an interview with the manager there who said, "Of course we want to break the cycle of addiction, but you're not going to do that until Joe Bloggs knows he's Joe Bloggs and remembers he once liked fishing on a Sunday afternoon." I like that succinctness. Please visit http://benscentre.wordpress.com.

merls [change] is a charitable organisation that I recently set up (in accordance with the Charities Act 2006, charity registration will be applied for if annual income reaches more than £5,000). I used to work/volunteer in Ethiopia, and I've also worked and volunteered in the voluntary and community sector in England for many years. 'Merls' means 'change' (as in 'pocket change') in Amharigna, a main Ethiopian language, but 'change' in English also means the ability to amend and transform. In its very small way, 'merls' will mean change for the rural people in Ethiopia. It's not that I don't like urban people, it's just that the rural people are often forgotten in that vast country, and to me they represent the 'average Jo' of the country. All of this donation will be spent on projects, and none on the organisation's admin, travel, and other such expenses.

THE GEEKY BIT ...

Between 2006 and 2011 many kind people responded to my leading questions and downright Miss Marple-esque pursuit of where to find a lot of this graffiti. I also discovered a lot myself whilst wandering the streets like a stray dog, following hunches and leads, and smelling the odd lamppost to get that authentic feel. I continued to give information and take it from various kindly sources.

In an effort to share this info and to let people take their own photos (if they want to – it's not compulsory) I have given a lot of free location information on internet groups/forums/location maps, and in 2006 I ran a series of free guided tours in London. All of this then accidentally became the raw material for Banksy Locations & Tours Vol 1. The days of my guided tours are over, though. There is not enough left to make them possible.

The Bristol tour in this book is still worth doing, though (as of May 2011), and almost half of the art at the locations in this book still exists, in a greater or lesser condition. If you want to find all this art yourself, this book (and Vol 1) will help. Take your own 'A to Z' street map with you though; maps are invaluable in this geeky game and will become your own comfort blanket. I will also post free updates to the info in the books on my website, which may be able to save you a wasted journey when a piece disappears. I will post free book/status updates on my own website www.shellshockpublishing.co.uk

And I can send these updates to you by email if you want. Just email me at m@shellshockpublishing.co.uk

I will continue to contribute location information on internet, especially on the following sites:

• The Banksy group on Flickr: www.flickr.com/groups/banksy/

• The Banksy Forum: www.thebanksyforum.com

BUY BYE BYE, SALE SELL SELL

(A.K.A. LEAVE THEM ON THE STREETS PLEASE!)

Without wishing to sound too grave or pompous (this is graffiti after all, where there aren't supposed to be any rules really), I feel that recent circumstances mean I need to give a summary of my personal feelings on removing, buying, and selling street pieces by Banksy. You of course have free will to do whatever you want to, hopefully using a wise conscience and internal moral compass.

First things first. I am just talking about pieces done on the streets and not canvases, screenprints, etc. My natural feeling has always clearly been to 'leave them on the street where they belong'. Simple as that. I don't need to intellectualise it all by going on about the utilitarian 'gift' of work to the street, and the 'democracy of street art'. Whilst people have these inane discussions, real writers are out taking risks on train tracks and climbing drainpipes.

This issue has unfortunately raised its head higher for me because some people have tried to use my first Banksy Locations & Tours book as a form of provenance when they are dealing in street pieces. For example, in late 2007–early 2008 the door the Refuse Store Rat in Clerkenwell was on (see Location F8 in BLT Vol 1) was removed, and it turned up in a Contemporary Art auction by the Scottish auctioneer Lyon & Turnball in September 2008. This auction controversially contained five Banksy street pieces, all allegedly 'authenticated' by Vermin, a company that has no connection to Banksy.

I was very unhappy when a friend told me they had referenced my book in their description of the piece. I rattled off a complaint to Lyon & Turnball, but they refused to take out the reference to BLT. My follow-up emails went unanswered, not surprisingly I guess, especially as the third one was childishly smug that their auction had been a colossal flop. Its estimated price was £20–25,000, but it remained unsold.

My books are a bit of fun really and are not meant to provide some sort of claim to give provenance to a street piece. I'm just a big geeky fan of Banksy's work and these are meant as information books and DIY guides. Believe it or not, these books have actually been quite hard work as well. They are not sales catalogues, nor an invitation to find pieces to steal, take to auction or buy from the owner. Banksy and Pest Control are the only people that can provide 'provenance' for anything Banksy-related (definitely not me!) and none of them will give...