Quest for a Place in the World

Somewhere in England, the early 1970s

La Grande Vadrouille

The twenty-something Phil Danté believed that he finally 'had it made'.

His road to England and having the time of his life had led from his native Australia to Asia and back, then to Europe and several parts of the British Isles.

Following the end of Australian involvement in Vietnam where he had risen to the rank of Corporal and lead an infantry section, he could see no point in remaining in the peacetime army. Not only would there be a lack of purpose, but he felt that he would be fighting a continual battle as some of his sergeants and warrant officers had confided to him that he probably wouldn't have been accepted into the army had it not been for the war in Vietnam. This was due to the unforgivable twin evils of his not being of Anglo Celtic extraction and a practicing Roman Catholic. He believed that those factors had led him to be mostly on his own during his school years where he felt excluded from mainstream Australian society.

The British and Australian maxim, 'You know what they say, wogs begin at Calais' was apt as Phil's family history was French rather than Italian with the Dantés emphasising l'accent aigu on their family surname. Though he had been Australian born and his parents had migrated from Cornwall, not Continental Europe, he felt that in Australia he was regarded as an alien foreigner, colloquially a reffo, or a wog. Equally, he had nothing in common with his Greek and Southern Italian Australian schoolmates who he regarded as loud drama queens. The proud monarchist Phil felt that they preferred to remain apart from mainstream Australia, as did the Disloyalist Southern Irish, whilst Phil desperately wanted to belong.

He had barely put his uniform away when he was informed by his family that his peacetime employment career either would be as a Commonwealth Public Servant, a New South Wales Police constable, a Walton's Department Store employee, or apprenticing himself to someone who had their own business. Phil imagined these careers to respectively make him terminally bored, corrupt, effeminate or a slave. This would set the foundation so he would then marry and have a lifetime of debt and self-loathing courtesy of providing grandchildren for his parents and relatives to enjoy. He was not keen on either of those options. His father couldn't fathom why Phil didn't wish to immediately marry and settle down like he and all the other World War II veterans did.

When they asked him what would make him happy, his family and neighbours at first thought he was joking when he told them that Vietnam was the best time of his life. When they realised that he meant it, all of them with the exception of his maiden aunt were horrified. His family remarked that they were happy that they no longer had to worry about him being killed off in some Indochinese jungle. Phil replied that several of his schoolmates had been killed mixing alcohol with motorcycles, fast cars and surfboards, and if he had to go, and when it was your time, it was your time, he'd prefer to die on duty.

From his childhood to the present, his once adventurous maiden aunt was the only person in his family who he could truly converse with, and he deeply admired. The family gladly accepted her as their mediator with him.

Phil idolised her and believed her to be Modesty Blaise incarnate as she had not only lived around the Mediterranean before she came to Australia in the early 1960s, but during the war she had been a Special Operations Executive operative with the French Forces of the Interior in Provence. Every ANZAC Day she wore her FANY beret, parachutist brevet and impressive British, French and American decorations and medals. Phil never forgot the day she escorted him to his school cadet unit who were going to take part in that year's Sydney parade. His Colonel Blimp adult head instructor of cadets patronisingly told her that women wore their husband's medals on their right side, only those who had earned medals wore them on their left side...

She fearsomely exploded like the blocks of plastic explosive she had used to blow up bridges in Southern France before the American invasion and had the terrified head of the cadets bracing at the position of attention as she firmly informed all and sundry just how she had earned her medals and elicited from him a shaking confession that he had spent the war in Australia in the Royal Australian Army Service Corps. Phil became the hero of his school.

On another memorable day she confided to him and swore him to secrecy that the real reason for her refusal to go with his family on their New Caledonia holidays and going into a tirade whenever she heard the name 'De Gaulle' was because she had been one of the Organisation Armée Secrète and if she entered any French territory she'd be arrested or assassinated.

She advised him to go to university and follow in her footsteps as a schoolteacher. He hated that idea as much as his local council bookkeeper father's wish for him to follow in his footsteps and to eventually become an accountant.

Both Phil and his family gladly accepted her advice that a long period of travel was the best thing for him and would give him a chance to ponder his future.

He left Australia for Europe to spend time with distant and obscure French relatives and explore the Continent. Phil's fallback plan was to enlist in the French Foreign Legion if he found himself unemployed and destitute.

ACES High

Phil then followed Australian tradition and travelled to the United Kingdom. As opposed to the usual Australian custom of drinking to excess in Earls Court, he travelled to Cornwall to stay with more relatives, then journeyed throughout England and Wales, then to Scotland, down to Liverpool thence to Ireland, and back to England where he found himself steady employment as an inquiry agent, or a private detective. He recalled that as a boy all the American action television shows he watched featured either cowboys or private eyes; he never thought he'd become one of the latter any more than he thought he'd become one of the former.

As an operative of Aegis Confidential Enquiry Service; the word 'Enquiry' being used over 'Inquiry' to make a more memorable acronym, Phil was having the most fun in his life since Vietnam. His work comprised a variety of interesting tasks ranging from investigation, interviewing, repossessing, surveillance, and writing reports on his activities as well as occasionally testifying in court. There would be the occasional punch up and frequent threats, but it made things lively.

With the cooler climate he gave up his backpacker's wardrobe and now dressed in older suits; he wore either a black French beret or a fedora to keep him warm, so he did resemble Darren McGavin. The frequent rains of England led him to wear a military trenchcoat that matched his childhood image of the American private eye, yet his appearance mirrored most of the businessmen of the city. Well, if not fashionably attired and prematurely aged from Vietnam, everyone agreed that Phil looked at least ten years older than he really was.

Aegis was headed by two men, Darryl, a retired police Inspector and Peter, a retired British soldier, with Phil being hired and favoured by the latter. He got on splendidly with both of them, and they were pleased with his work performance, either individually or together with another operative. His mentor Peter had always seemed to uncannily be one jump ahead of him, sometime finishing Phil's sentences or correctly predicting what he was going to do. They occasionally swapped war stories and Peter would invite him to his home for tea with his family.

His peers at ACES were a fascinating group of young adventurous males from around the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Every Friday afternoon all the operatives would come in to submit their paperwork to determine their pay for the week. They swapped stories with each other of their weekly work exploits or their former adventures in different occupations in different nations. Their tales were avidly listened to by Marilyn the secretary and Adrian the bookkeeper. Phil once asked the older Adrian how he ended up working at Aegis. Adrian replied that he had formerly been a Crown public servant. Phil expressed surprise that he would leave the security of The Men from the Ministry, but Adrian replied that nothing ever happened in the public service; the operatives had more adventure and excitement in one week than public servants had in an entire lifetime.

After their weekly briefing and being paid, their bosses would lead them to a pub through the streets filled with besuited businessmen and women and uniformed schoolchildren eagerly going home. There the operatives and their managers had a 'prayer meeting', the army term for drinking and conversing together.

The interesting work and camaraderie made up for the extensively long hours and the wage was enough for a single man to comfortably live on, but not to get rich. One of his workmates pointed out that enjoyable jobs never paid well...

Phil had something much better to do then remain in a public house. For the first time in his life, he had a serious girlfriend that he worshipped.

Caroline Walmsley was a schoolteacher like his favourite aunt. They had met in a shop run by one of the friends of their family where Caroline and her mother were at when Phil came into the shop. Caroline's mother began talking to Phil with him thinking that she was the friendliest woman that he had met in his entire time in England. To Phil's surprise, Caroline later explained to a friend when asked how she met Phil that her mother thought that Phil had come to rob the store and she would annoy him with trite conversation until he left.

As Caroline still lived with her appealingly eccentric family, Phil behaved himself like a gentleman. He began to shave and dress better on the weekend and shaved off his Fu Manchu moustache to please her. She would come to the pub to meet Phil's workmates on Friday evening and after one mutual drink, a lager for him, a shandy for her, the pair would go to dinner.

When Phil had free Saturdays, the pair would go on walks or shop about Caroline's town, dine and see a film together. On Sundays he would attend High Anglican services with her parents; she made him promise he would never tell them he was a Catholic. Afterwards he would have a delicious roast lunch with them, where she made him promise to tell no more sick humour jungle war stories that shocked her and her family. The pair would go on afternoon walks in parks or window shopping where they would return to her family for afternoon tea. They would separate with Caroline doing grading at home and Phil returning to his flat to prepare for the next week's work.

Phil was grateful that he seemed to have everything going for him that a man could desire; a charming, intelligent and kind girlfriend, a wonderful surrogate family, and an interesting and sufficiently paid occupation with fine management and a peer group he felt he belonged with. His family who he corresponded with by post also approved of his lifestyle.

One Saturday afternoon Caroline frightened Phil with the phrase dreaded by all men, everywhere...

'Philip, we have to talk.'

Allenby's Ascendant

They sat together in Caroline's Mini as the rains poured on the windscreen. Her schoolteacher instincts came to the fore as she spoke to Phil as if he were a confused child; he recognised his favourite Aunt's tone of voice and conversational skills. Like his Aunt, at times she would put her hand over his mouth to stifle his objections as she gently, but firmly, explained things.

By teatime she had convinced him that he was going nowhere, and she demanded him to go somewhere, together with her. It was time for a career, not a job.

She informed him that his strengths were that he was extremely intelligent, hardworking, well mannered, dressed and groomed and could converse with a variety of people on a variety of topics. Ergo, he had a chance to shine in the retail world. Her family had arranged an interview for him to join the regionally well-known Allenby's Department Stores where there was an opportunity to become a trainee executive manager. He had visions of himself as Ian Carmichael at the beginning of I'm All Right Jack, the sequel to Private's Progress; he wondered whether he'd disastrously fail as the hapless Carmichael did.

Her final ultimatum was that if he wanted to continue with her he would have to give it a try and try his best. She silenced his most furious objection that if he needed money her family would provide him a loan, but they both agreed that that would be only as a final resort.

When they arrived at the Walmsley's for Saturday High Tea, he sensed her smiling family had known that she had accomplished her mission.

* * *

Caroline escorted him to his interview in the flagship store of Allenby's as if she were a mother taking her child to his first day of school. She fussed over his appearance and made sure his starched white pocket handkerchief was folded correctly.

The grandeur of the marble of the foyer of the store took him back to his childhood where his mother would dress up and wore white gloves. Together they would journey on a tram or on the top of a double-decker bus to one of the Sydney department stores, with him in his Sunday best. Unlike other children who balked at wearing suits, he felt like the exciting adults in films or television. Like the cinema, the palatial department stores were his entrance to another and better world where everyone was well dressed and looked and felt important. The sales staff would be introduced to him and would address him as 'Master Philip' that he revelled in. He was on his best behaviour as he feigned interest in his mother's shopping and purchases lest he jeopardise his morning tea with cake or a formal lunch in the department store and afterwards attending a cinema matinee.

Phil breezed through the interview and found himself a part of the Allenby's 'family' where he was informed that he had a bright future in front of him. Perhaps Caroline had been right after all? He had to admit that she usually was, and he felt even closer to her. He planned on proposing to her once his training and internship was completed. In the meantime, he discovered his salary was so good because he would be working a six-day week.

His farewell party at ACES was a memorable one with everyone sorry to see him go; Caroline ensured he didn't overdo things. Darryl and Peter confided to him that very few people lasted at Aegis; many became policemen or married and settled into duller, but more stable jobs. Like the army, it seemed like a prolonged adolescence for those who wanted a last fling before domesticity. Those that remained in the industry and struck out on their own always seemed intense, terminally lonely and no longer fun loving. Peter made Phil promise to stay in touch and let him know how he was getting on.

His feared spectacular Ian Carmichael failures did not come to pass, and he found himself doing well in the training course, or was it subconscious 'fake it until you make it' behaviour? Curiously, his early to mid-1960s style suits and hair cut blended in with the conservative establishment of Allenby's, and as people had told him, those in power only hired those that resembled themselves.

He had been curious of why there was an executive training programme; why didn't they promote their experienced employees based on their seniority and willingness to accept responsibility?

He discovered the answer when assigned to his first store. No one wanted to rise up in the world; they were intensely proud of Allenby's and the job they did and that was it. It was rather like Australia where no one liked anyone who was rich, influential or powerful, except the Queen, because it wasn't her fault that she was rich, influential and powerful.

There were the older male floorwalkers and decorators who were as queer as the day was long who lived for their work that allowed them to be the centre of attention and expertise and be respected by the public or had the chance to let their artistic instincts flourish. He found them so exceptionally polite that they reminded him of Mac and Tosh, the extremely courteous Goofy Gophers from the cartoons. They explained to him that if the world was a mass of machinery, then manners were the lubricant that kept everything running smoothly and prevented things from being destroyed. He noticed the gleam in their eyes when they said the word 'lubricant'...

They were not only tolerant of his being a newcomer, but they gave him many sensible sartorial tips without resorting to buying new fashions.

There were the older Queen Bee female department heads who lived to dominate their staff and ensure that everything was 'just so'. He kept it to himself that if they had used the same leadership techniques they used on their harried staff in Vietnam they would have ended up with a hand grenade in their tent.

He found himself learning a lot from them as well, and their 'suggestions' to him were like his having a variety of mothers.

His private and commercial investigation experience paid off as he was skilled at being observant but appeared unobtrusive. When required, he administered counselling of erring employees well away from their peers, for the army had taught him what not to do.

The rank and file did not really wish to advance. The female staff were happy to remain up to, then after their marriages to earn extra income once their children were grown. Those straight males in retail who wanted to amount to something other than a department manager would eventually leave or be given the sack. He was informed by the department heads he socialised with in the tearoom that some of the women would leave once they tired of the same old gossip and would find similar retail employment to meet a new group of people like the ones they had left to learn new gossip and tell their tales to a new audience.

For the first time in his life, other than his army days of Asian bar girls and prostitutes, he found that the shop girls were flirting with him. They knew their manager was unapproachable due to his closeness with Caroline, and they regarded him rather like a Catholic priest. Hence, they were incredibly and humorously open about their banter, like a ribald television show. He'd smile and match quips with them in a Bondian manner until he realised that in the battle of wits they were completely unarmed.

Having been brought up in a strict home and being in the army, he tolerated his superiors well. Though he was psychologically incapable of fawning and sucking up, he'd feign enthusiasm and did as he was told without any 'backchat'.

The only ones in his new world he wasn't keen on were his fellow executive trainees who believed they had some sort of divine right to rule.

Supersleuth

The day had come when he finished the course.

All the Allenby Ascendants wearing white carnations attended their graduation ceremony. Caroline and her mother, both wearing white gloves sat in approval of Phil's arrival. To his surprise, his former boss Peter was also present. The head Allenby and other members of the store's own royal family presided, with the eldest Allenby Emeritus giving a speech with Phil fearing that he'd fall asleep.

Afterwards Phil introduced Caroline, her mother, and Peter to everyone with his referring to Caroline as 'Professor Higgins' and she calling him 'Mr. Not-do-little' and 'My Fair Gentleman'. When he said, 'Behind every successful man there's an amazed woman', she quipped 'A proud woman'. He decided he would wait for his first posting before planning his proposal; he had so much financial planning to do...

Caroline and 'Mumsy' were in awe when he introduced the pair of them to the Grande Dame of Allenbys. As if they were meeting the Queen, a major film star or the Beatles all in one, the pair of them curtsied towards her.

'I've heard so many wonderful things about you from Monsieur Danté...'

'Philip', he smiled, Mumsy and Caroline had their smiles frozen.

'He was a soldier in Indochina, wasn't he?'

Mumsy and Caroline had the expression of a pair of mice meeting a cat.

'That's where men learn to accept and carry out their orders so well...'

Mumsy and Caroline now looked like the cat who had the cream.

* * *

It initially seemed strange to him that as he was settling into his work, Caroline was becoming more distant to him.

He put it down due to the school term schedule. His mother wrote back to him replying that she was probably nervous about their future marriage whilst his Aunt said that no woman wanted to feel like she was being taken for granted. She answered his query that the reason why he was taking to the retail career that he feared in Australia was because the commonplace in a new and different country seemed exotic. He wished she was with him as she could communicate more to him with one look from her brown eyes then most people he knew could impart in a lifetime of talking. He had certainly changed his views on marrying and someday having children, only earning the proper amount of money that now was becoming feasible was delaying his formal marriage proposal.

In contrast to the moody Caroline, her parents were warming to him. He found his future family introducing him to and dining with other members of the family and their close friends on Sundays. Caroline behaved coolly, but he reassured himself that her parents were drilling her in the ways of looking and acting like an executive's wife. They talked about the traditional school the Walmsley's had attended. Phil later looked into their fees that were astronomical.

Countering her 'We have to talk', he met with Caroline to discuss his pre-proposal. As he often did with her, he felt like a nervous schoolchild approaching his all-knowing smiling teacher's desk rather than feeling as if he were serenading her beneath a balcony in Verona.

One of the qualities he loved about her was her sensibility. She matter of factly explained that wouldn't it be best to wait until after he completed his probation before he made his formal proposal? She wasn't keen on a long engagement, and this would give them a chance to find out where they should buy their future home.

Phil had noticed both in Australia and the UK that that Aussie or British families never were open about hugs and declaring their love for each other as French or other Continental families did. It was like the way the French drank alcohol, they did drink, but never to excess, at least in public. There was nowhere in the world that he would rather be then in her arms, but her embraces had become perfunctory rather than loving.

* * *

He was called into a meeting with one of the Allenbys who ran the store chain. There wasn't just one Allenby, there was a group of them. The employee's brains trust and bush telegraph believed that they schemed against each other in their little empires. Someone remarked that they were like the Borgias, but without the fun bits.

He was not only congratulated and welcomed, but Mr. Allenby said the entire clan was impressed with his Inquiry Agent experience, his polite but intimidating surprise cash register checks when continued shortages were discovered at specific registers and his staff training lectures on loss prevention that would benefit the entire Allenby empire. Allenby's were considering creating the position of a separate loss prevention manager, and Phil was told that he would be a sure choice for the job.

Phil was delighted as no doubt the salary would be enough to get married on.

* * *

Phil's detective skills were soon required.

One morning the manageress of the jewellry department summoned him to inform him that an expensive bracelet had gone missing after the morning inventory, but before the store had opened.

Phil discovered the inventory tag on the floor in the internal loading dock and confirmed that it was from the missing bracelet through the jewellry manageress.

Upon returning from an unsuccessful search of the trash dumpster where people had been known to hide stolen goods, he discovered that the bracelet had been returned and the new trainee executive manager appeared very shook up about the affair. He nervously explained to Phil that he had telephoned the police to not bother coming as the matter had been resolved.

Phil smiled and calmed him down and took him to his office for a confidential chat. The train of events was at strong variance with the trainee's statement. He no doubt panicked and changed his mind when the police had been called and Phil was on the case. He had the trainee manager write his story up in a report, then Phil added it to his and the jewellry manageress's reports that proved the trainee manager was not telling the truth. He sent it to his superior for his action, who would then take it to Mr. Allenby. He had to admit, of all the trainee managers with the 'born to rule' complex, that trainee had it the strongest.

Éjecté et rejeté

The next day was Friday. Phil was summoned to Mr. Allenby's office where he was informed that the firm had too many executive managers and sadly, Phil's career was terminated, as he was just shy of reaching the end of his probation.

Phil later discovered that the kleptomaniac was an Allenby son-in-law.

* * *

He planned on informing the Walmsleys that he no longer was employed on their Saturday afternoon tea that he had been invited to. Upon arrival he noticed there was a new male face in the house, a young-looking long-haired strawberry blonde man with a Fu Manchu moustache named Derek.

Caroline informed Phil that Derek was an accountant, and they would be married at the end of the month.

Phil, who had lost his usual lifelong quipping could find no words to say, Mr. and Mrs. Walmsley grinned stupidly, like nursery toys.

Why had she seemed to prolong their engagement and now she was rushing into a marriage???

Phil blurted,

'Isn't this rather sudden, Caroline?'

'Yes it is, Philip.'

She smiled. Derek gave a cheeky leer. The clock struck four and the penny dropped in Phil's mind as he imagined a little wooden bird coming out of the Walmsley's clock chanting,

'Cuckold! Cuckold! Cuckold! Cuckold!'

Caroline was blushing, King Leer was grinning even more. Philip despised himself for acting the perfect gentleman with her. Caroline broke the awkward silence,

'Well, you are a bit dull, Philip.'

Everyone except him laughed. He envied the psychopathic axe murderers whose only thought was 'who do I kill first?'

'It just wouldn't work out, Philip. I want a man whose exciting, English and also who's not a Catholic.'

Her parents suddenly seemed shocked at that remark as infidelity and a shotgun marriage were acceptable, but religious tolerance was not.

There would be witnesses to his punching out King Leer, and like a potato crisp he wouldn't be able to stop with just one; you can't stop [b]eating them and he'd probably be imprisoned. What could he say? She was right, he was dull and no longer exciting. He had allowed her to run his life, believing his family's wishes that a steady job and a lovely wife was the only road to happiness...wrong...wrong...wrong...

Phil turned and walked out the Walmsley's door for the final time.

Réversion royale

Phil walked through the streets of a foggy English night the day after his debacle. The fog of the street matched the one in his mind, he hadn't eaten, nor had he drank any alcohol as he lived Kubler-Ross's Five Stages of Grief. He realised he had to stop brooding in his flat when he heard Nat King Cole's Smile on the radio. Rather than inspire him, it brought back the memory of his first dance with Caroline when she pulled the suddenly shy Phil out on a dance floor to slowly, closely and sensuously dance with each other as the song played. When their dance ended, he wanted to be with her for evermore.

He sensed someone was following him, then turned to see Peter.

'What on Earth are you...'

'I'm a detective, Phil, and I'm looking for you.'

'Do you recall Allenby's, Peter? They-'

'I know...it was meant to be, Phil, it was meant to be...there's not much time...you've learned your lesson...you're going to work again...'

Phil was as dumbstruck as a kangaroo frozen in a headlamp by Peter's sudden mysterious appearance, his intense haunting expression and his all-knowing cryptic remarks. Before he could say anything, Peter placed a hand-written note with an address and a time into his left hand, then warmly shook his right hand,

'Bonne chance, Phillipe...'

Phil was startled by Peter's goodbye, and he actually seemed to vanish into the fog. The unexpected encounter was so sudden that he wondered if it had really happened? It was as if he had entered The Twilight Zone.

The address was a pub, He entered to hear that the music playing inside was Ricky Nelson's Garden Party. He ordered a lager, sat at a table and began singing along with Ricky to a very apt song; others in the pub joined his singing the refrain. He laughed for the first time in what seemed to be ages and somehow felt in a state of bliss.

He soon noticed that two middle aged men were staring intently at him from another table, he correctly sensed that they weren't interested in his singing...

One of them was heavy set with black hair and blazing brown eyes, the other was taller, thinner, sandy haired and coolly blue eyed...He hadn't seen them before, but he instantly knew their kind...hardcore commando types...but they were somehow familiar. If he hadn't seen them before he must've seen them in the news or was he somehow remembering them from some future time that hadn't yet occurred? The intense dark-haired man beckoned to him.

Phil walked to their table and sat down, he felt as if had walked into a different world...The music and chatter in the pub seemed to suddenly go silent as if it was just the three of them were now the only ones left alive in the entire world. It was like his recurring dreams where he met strangers who knew all about him and the wonderful times they had together in the past, but he had no idea who they were and how they knew him, as if he had amnesia.

They now both warmly smiled at him.

The dark-haired man spoke,

'Won't you join us, Danny Boy?'

He correctly noted Phil's puzzlement.

'We served with your mate Peter in the Commandos during the war. He told us all about you...one look at you and we knew he was right...I'm Hugh Williams and this is John Coleman.'

They shook hands and the answer to their identity flashed in Phil's mind as if he were on a television game show. Of course. Major 'Hellfire Hugh' Williams and Captain 'Hot' Coleman from Africa in the early 1960s. The pair of them had once been media stars during the days of the blazing atrocities that were the result of the 'Wind of Change' then British Prime Minister MacMillan talked about that was the result of the door of Hell opening on the Earth. A Western supported African government hired the pair to train their army to repel the savage Eastern supported marauders who murdered all races equally and sadistically. The pair's outnumbered African Commando wiped out the marauders and drove the few survivors back until the United Nations stepped in to broker a peace and save the marauders from total extinction. A.E. Houseman's Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries could well have been written about them.

'We're going somewhere hot in both meanings of the word soon, and we need an experienced platoon sergeant. Are you in?'

Phil raised his glass of lager in a toast.

'The best journey always takes you home, gentlemen, and Vietnam was my home...', he thought one last time of Caroline, 'To thine own self, be true.'

Captain Coleman began to recite a poem as he and Major Williams raised their glasses to his.

'Kipling's The Lost Legion', Phil remarked in recognition.

Major Williams recited a different part of the poem,

'We preach in advance of the Army, we skirmish ahead of the Church...'

As Phil downed his lager, he knew that he had found himself home at last...

FIN

Author Notes: I am the author of three Extra Dimensional/Ultraterrestial military science fiction novels MERCENARY EXOTIQUE, OPERATION CHUPACABRA and WORK IN OTHER WORLDS FROM YOUR OWN HOME! as well as two travel books THE MAN FROM WAUKEGAN and TWO AUSTRALIANS IN SCOTLAND (all from Lulu.com). I live happily ever after with my wife in paradise (coastal Kiama, NSW Australia).

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