As I was trying to get back to sleep this morning (before I gave up and came down to my study an hour earlier than I’d intended) it stuck me how many remarkable things I had done in my life. And that it can be good to stand back and take stock.
I have taught in West Africa; lived and worked in Switzerland and Singapore. I have travelled the world: the USA (all three time-zones), Grenada, Eire, Finland (many times), Sweden (many times), Denmark (many times), Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France (many times), Spain, Italy (many times), Greece, Sierra Leone, Kenya, India, Indonesia, China, Japan, Australia.
I have been homeless (as a child); lived in nearly 40 different houses (but in reality perhaps only two or three homes); got a degree; as a young man, loved and lost too often (haven’t we all!); been married twice; fathered three children; made and lost friends; managed teams of c.150 people (internationally) and annual budgets in excess of c.£18m.
I have been ‘political’ (small ‘p’) and stood for election (in both local government and trade union back in the day). I have been a school governor and trustee for a charity, and I have discovered a life-long love of sport, art, cinema, music, theatre – and literature, that saving grace.
And I have written over twenty books, and published over twenty others (the grand total of both will exceed fifty during 2024).
Not a bad cv I hope.
And in taking stock, I realise that I have no real desire to add much to my tally of global places visited – and I certainly don’t intend to marry again, father any more children, or move house again (probably!). I’m quite satisfied, thank you very much.
But books?
I’d love to write another twenty. Or thirty. Each and every one of them will be fuelled by the experiences curated from the life putting together that cv above. How can they not be? I doubt I’ll last long enough to write as many as I’d like – though that won’t stop me from trying…
Ian Gouge - Writer 