The Spirit within

John takes us vividly and imaginatively through his early adventures and travels during the 1950's in the British Mercantile Marine and the British South Africa Police in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

We return with him to the UK following a broken love affair where he joins the Royal Marine Commandos and is posted to Cyprus in the middle of the island's battle for independence from Britain.

There he is ambushed by EOKA terrorists and badly injured.

Once off the hospital danger list he undergoes both bone and plastic surgery under the watchful eyes of RAF Surgeons.

His adventures and restlessness then take him into the early buccaneering days of the international tobacco trade, owning and running a Somerset Public House, a magical week crewing a Square Rigged sailing ship and eventually moving to a beautiful Dorset coastal village.

The book is also a spiritual journey and you join him in his middle years as he is lifted from the depths of despair on to his Path towards wisdom and understanding.

During a visit to Eastern Canada in the year 2000, he realises his soul had been an American Indian in the late 18th Century and he is guided to a property on a bend in the St. Lawrence River. The property is purchased and what follows amongst other events is a hilarious camping trip with friends into the Canadian wilderness.

John's story concludes with a philosophical look at the world today and a poem attributed to a Maori describing the journey of the Human Spirit through Time from which is taken the book's title.