For most of his life, John believed that he had endured at 18 the world's worst gap year: working as an accountant in the City of London. Aged 70, he had that rare thing in life, a second chance, despite a knee that set off security systems in airports around the world, he visited fourteen countries and worked in France, Australia and the United States. He also volunteered for a project in NW India, whose aim was to increase educational and vocational opportunities for women and young girls.
Along the way, he met some fascinating people, among them: the champion omelette maker of Jodhpur; one of the very few survivors of the Khmer Rouge death camps; and a philosophising cacti grower in the Australian outback. He spent a morning chatting to visitors to Oscar Wilde's grave in Paris; visited war sites in Vietnam; and survived a weekend in Benidorm. He also just about survived that almost obligatory gap year experience: a bungee jump in New Zealand.
If this book inspires even one person to fulfil their dream; its writing will have been worth it.
John Kirkaldy was born in July 1947 in Srinagar, Kashmir, a few days before Indian Independence. His father was a British Army officer, trying to assist in one of the biggest human migrations in history.
John's father was Anglo Scots, his mother Norwegian and he has two half Irish children. His upbringing to teenage years was typical of service life with stays in Manchester, Burma, Germany, County Durham, Hampshire and Wiltshire. He was educated at Tonbridge and the LSE, and the Universities of the West Indies and New South Wales.
John taught at universities, colleges and schools in Britain, Jamaica and Australia. He was a tutor with the Open University (OU) for 37 years and contributed to a school textbook and three Irish history academic anthologies. He was also part of the production team for four OU TV history series. John is a regular book reviewer, mainly for Books Ireland, and a freelance writer for a wide range of publications, stretching from The Lady to the New Statesman.