All Over the Place: A Life - Softcover

Ron Southerton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1908853255 ISBN 13: 9781908853257

Publisher: Valley Press, 2013

Synopsis

'Family folklore always had it that my birth had been rather dramatic - for my mother, that is. Apparently she was in mortal danger when her second child was delivered at home with great difficulty on the 14th of January 1925. At first, all efforts were properly devoted to saving mother while the newborn was temporarily consigned to the floor. Later, they picked him up to discover that 'the little blighter's still alive!'

All Over the Place: A Life is the autobiography of retired Charted Engineer Ron Southerton; a life both ordinary and remarkable; recognisable and unusual. With his teenage years overshadowed by the Second World War, Ron joined the army in the immediate aftermath of that conflict, and served in Palestine, Tripoli, Korea and Aden. Leaving the army as a Major, he became editor of a monthly academic journal, before being head-hunted by a Swedish company responsible for industrial gas turbines - with this career eventually leading him to a spell as area manager in Baghdad, before returning to the UK to work as a freelance translator in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

As the book's title suggests, the story of those years is told with plenty of self-deprecating humour - 'my memory is so bad,' Ron confesses, 'I can no longer remember what it is I have forgotten'. Highlights include the day he confronted Robert Maxwell in his Oxford office for overdue translation work fees (and won), the day he rode on the footplate of Mallard at 99mph from Doncaster to King's Cross, and the day he found himself on the east side of the Berlin Wall during the Cold War...

Edition details

• Publisher: Valley Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1908853255
• ISBN 13: 9781908853257
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 104