Les Stanley

I'm a recently retired corporate citizen and haphazard blogger. I was, as Groucho Marx said, born at an early age, in London (England). My parents moved to the Kent coast when I was seven. I caught up with them a year or so later.

My school days were unremarkable. The only subjects I had any affinity with were English and Geography. I think this stemmed from my parents, who both spoke English, often at the same time, moving house every few years when my father sought out places, in various windswept parts of Britain, he could "fix up". Despite our protestations, the family usually went with him.

I recently discovered that due to a quirk of fate, my loving mother and father had not, as planned, emigrated to Australia before I was born. It took me some years to come to terms with this glaring error of judgement on their part. Some days I think I still haven't.

My first book, My Brother's Bicycle tells the story of a, mostly unsuccessful, attempt to re-live a bike trip I embarked on with a friend when I was in my twenties.