You may be
familiar with the sort of author biography that appears on covers and attributes
to the author all manner of odd jobs that kept him occupied until he wrote
the mega-block-buster that you are holding and are about to put down. Well,
that's me , without having written the book yet.
An assortment
of jobs chosen mostly for their interest rather than any career idea, culminating
in four years in computers in the days when you wrote machine code with
a hand punch on cards led to my retirement from the world of structured
work in 1970.
The proprietor's erstwhile home
In the ensuing
28 years (it is always wise to get your retirement in as early as possible)
working on and living on and sailing around in boats occupied a good few,
and things like being a bank note dealer and renovating a bunch of Georgian
houses took up a a bunch more, but when my rustic floating village home
on the Thames near Kew Gardens was encroached upon by Developers I abandoned
the Great Wen forever and moved to the Midlands, where there was no significant
water within 60 miles, so Marine Surveying was out for a start.
Such are
the things that bring otherwise sane people to Antique dealing, and specializing
in clocks and watches satisfied my mechanical side.
Ten years
in the business has given me a great deal of interest, temporary custody
of some great things, and not much money, as I was always to cheap in the
price department .
The advent
of the Internet and the possibility of a world market has come late but
I hope not too late for me to extend my acquaintance and trading to a multitude
of interesting people all over the world , not to mention
doubling
the turnover at the local post office and enabling the local Cable company
to make some profit at last.
It has already
struck me just how much of an idea you can get of people through correspondence
and my eyes have been opened by the assistance and generosity of spirit
that seems the rule rather than the exception in these parts of the Internet
community I have encountered so far.
The proprietor has always been
able to earn pocket money by frightening naughty children
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