Rat Atouille: For the Rindless Paperback -

John was born on October 14th 1940, in a working class suburb of Lower Hutt in New Zealand. Life as an only child was often lonely, more especially for a "fat kid" with no father. In spite of close family ties and an encouraging mother. It was a conventional childhood and adolescence, with all the usual desperate issues associated with a post-war, testosterone-loaded young man. Girls, drinking, cars...nothing changes. Working at 15 years old with no academic qualifications meant limited career options, and eventually, after an early unsuccessful marriage, the lure of Australia drew him to that marvellous country. There, on a working holiday that lasted 28 years, he drifted like a leaf on a fickle breeze. He saw a lot of the Outback from the seat of a motorcycle or from behind the wheel of an old 4WD Nissan Patrol, accompanied for twelve of those years by his beloved dog/companion, Mr. Mo. He worked at employment as he found it-selling cars, cooking, crewing on cruising yachts, managing businesses, farming and even a brief stint in Papua New Guinea operating a jungle resort. After a return to New Zealand in 1996, and the cold realisation that at 56 years of age he was unemployable, he began to write. First there was love poetry, then, as time dribbled by, he began to take a retrospective look at his own life. Since meeting up with an English-born woman from Greece on the Internet eleven years ago, he has been writing short stories as well. They now share an idyllic lifestyle on New Zealand's picturesque Coromandel Peninsula, living in a small rural community surrounded by hills and the ocean. He hopes to die peacefully one day without warning and minimal leakage.