The Life of an Ordinary Man

I enjoy writing. I don’t possess an imagination that can make up fiction, so I only write about actual historical events particularly those that occurred during my life. As has been said, truth can be stranger than fiction. Necessarily, my writings include stories involving my forebears, but they predominantly document events that took place during my marriage with Alida.

I was born and raised in Scotland, a country known for its excellent education system. I was able to read and write before my sixth birthday. As a boy, I read extensively, first comics then the classics. I say “comics” but the weekly publications (Rover, Wizard and others) consisted solely of adventure stories, words without any pictures. Boys would create pictures in their own minds to illustrate what they were reading.

I hope that readers will be able to form word pictures in their imaginations when they read the stories in this book.