Tom

This has been the life and times of Tom Edwards, a boy raised during the greatest depression then known to England. He relates his memories of the second Great War, of his experiences joining the Royal Navy as an apprentice, and of his time in many parts of Africa. Tom recalls his experiences in an anti-terrorist unit, of sailing around the world in a 30-foot boat and being chased by pirates off the coast of Columbia, and then being wrecked off the coast of New Zealand in a hurricane. Throughout the autobiography Tom, Tom Edwards has maintained a sense of humour and tells things as he remembers them. No autobiography is completely true, but it is as near the truth as circumspection allows. If Tom's recall of events and dates fail in some areas, you must forgive him, as an eighty-two-year-old mind has its limitations. Tom can recall Edward the Eighth's abdication speech verbatim and his mother's co-op number from seventy years ago, but events chronologically closer often elude him. About the Author: Tom Edwards was born in Hampshire, England, where he spent his early years. After completing his education, he served six years in the Fleet Air Arm branch of the Royal Navy. He then made his living for several years as an artist before moving to Southern Africa, where he worked as a reporter as well as a mining engineer in South Africa, Zambia and Namibia, finally settling in what was then Rhodesia. After travelling the world, he now lives at Lake Macquarie in New South Wales, Australia. His next book is titled The Hunter. His was a life full of adventure. Gazing at the heavens while lying on the cabin roof of a 30-foot boat one thousand miles from the nearest land, gave Tom Edwards a sense of his incredible insignificance in the scheme of things. He learned that most people are kind, generous and innately good, if treated with respect. He loved the era in which he was born, when foul language was never used in the home or in company. It was an era when women wore dresses and were modest and chaste; when men were courteous and manly; when a child could roam without fear; and mothers stayed home to look after their family. People lived closer together and had time to converse. They were mainly poor in wealth and chattels, but rich in friendships and family experiences. He will be forever grateful for being born into that era, before too many of the endearing trappings of living became passé. More About the Author: During the Rhodesian conflict, Tom Edwards joined the reserve branch of the security forces where he served on border patrol and in the Marine Division. There he acquired much of the material for his first book If I Should Die. He and a friend bought a thirty-foot boat and sailed around the world for four years; a trip bedevilled by pirates and hurricanes. After being shipwrecked, Tom continued on his own to South Africa via Christmas Island, Cocos Keeling and the Seychelles. His penultimate adventure was to walk from John O'Groats in northern Scotland to Land's End in southern England, which took him forty-six days. At the ripe old age of eighty, he and the son of a friend sailed a 30-foot boat from Hobart, Tasmania, to Lake Macquarie in New South Wales, where he lives today. http://sbpra.com/TomEdwards