Voyages to Serendip

Strap yourself in. John Smith's life is about to change in a manner he never envisioned.

As a non-conformist schoolboy, he has a burning need to escape the comfort of southeast London suburbia, escape the industrial hemorrhaging of a post empire Britain, escape the zombies of death.

This dazzling memoir, written in beautiful, confident prose begins in 1977 with England in a state of despair. How does a boy become a man? It's a question as old as life itself. He decides to travel in a different world, experience life, women, poverty and the fear of war in a vivid account through a young man's eyes.

His adventures at sea and on land teach him who he is and what he truly wants from life. He visits the dazzling lights of New York, Cape Town and Hong Kong, but also the numbing blandness of Suez and Halul, the rigidity of religious Arabia and the poverty of West Africa. Along the way, John has time to reflect on some philosophical aspects of life.

What begins as an escape becomes a search for something else, something hidden awaiting to be found. Immerse yourself in Voyages to Serendip, a story about recognizing where you come from and the random, struggle to find a way forward revealed in fate.

Written with candor and self-deprecating humor, this memoir will literally take you round the world to find a better place. Voyages to Serendip tells the age-old tale of growing up, but in a very different style.