As an ordinary working-class boy living in a small town, in Northern Ireland, there were few opportunities to acquire jobs, skills, or trades. I moved to London at the age of 18 years and trained in supermarket management. After two years of training experience, I qualified as a store manager and managed central London supermarkets for a few years. I took time out of working in London and decided to travel to wherever I could go, while I was young and healthy.
I used buses and trains and hitch-hiked overland to reach Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Burma now Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, and Java, with two flights to Australia, and New Zealand.
During my backpacker I trips, I worked on the Darwin River Dam project, in the Northern
Territory outback of Australia and at an Accident & Emergency Department in Auckland Hospital in New Zealand. Later I worked as a freelancer, publishing travel magazines in the Caribbean, Africa, India, and Sri Lanka.
When I returned to the UK, I was penniless. I joined a London newspaper and trained in
journalism, and the Internet. During my travels, I was regularly being questioned about
Ireland and Guinness, the black stuff, by interested people, so I decided to investigate
Guinness and write this little book. The advice given to me by a successful author was to
write about a subject that I wanted to know about, it was interesting advice. And you can be my judge and jury in a few weeks’ time.
Wilde O’Conor
Comments