I don’t really know why I started writing this book. I was very low and it was winter, you know the sort of thing I mean. It’s dark and cold and wet and you feel low. Besides, I was bitter to the core at all the failure I had endured all my life. I wish it could have been different but it wasn’t to be.
Born into a military family in the 1950’s, I had what you’d call a strict upbringing. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all bad and some of the discipline did me good. I’d say that it was better than the other way round and yet......and yet the discipline never seemed to be administered with love and this is what makes all the difference.
The best part of my life was the carefree period when we got posted to Singapore at a time that was bereft of “health and safety” which led to a great emphasis on freedom, a freedom I miss and cherish and for which I will always be grateful...to have had a childhood full of adventure and activities that would astound people today.
Later, my Father wishing to “make a man” of me and to “broaden” my mind, sent me at the age of 14, to a Nautical College called the Indefatigable, a notoriously harsh school run more on the lines of a reform school. Ironically, my parents did not realise this at the time. The only person that seemed to know the truth was my mentally ill Grandfather who was not taken seriously.
The more I got into writing my book the more therapeutic it began to get. I was getting it all off my chest as it were and I became aware that I really had something to share with others. It was not until I began to write it all down that I knew just what I had done in my life and perhaps how it could help others. All the experiences came pouring out of me and my memory served me well.
I wanted to write from the heart and I had read somewhere that the best way to write was as if “you are speaking to someone”. This is how I set out to record my life with all its ups and downs, its humour, danger and sadness.
Often I get to reading my own book and cannot believe that I am the subject of it. Much of what I did was actually borne out of fear, fear of failure combined with a debilitating lack of self esteem and confidence which was to lead me into all sorts of farcical situations, many of which I could not cope with. To escape much of what confronted me, I would constantly seek ways to run for home and this is what forms the basis for the title of my book “Running For Home”.
Three different trades in the Royal Navy continued the pace of adventure especially when I trained to be an Aircrew man flying in helicopters and escaping death and injury by the “skin of my teeth” saving not only my own life but that of several others by being conscientious at just the right time.
Looking back, I have lived life to the full and actually don’t regret any of it, so if you like autobiographies with a difference you’ll like this, a book written from the heart, written with honesty without exaggeration in a style that is simple and straightforward. I hope you enjoyed this site Top Autobiographies.
