The Expatriate centres on me and my young family's experience in Malawi. However, the first part gives insights into life as a private in the British Army. That culminates in Aden when the British were being pushed out. For many, the army can be a salvation.  

 

It moves to the fight to enter, and the subsequent experience of, higher education: studying town planning for five years at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.

 

The book includes a tribute to magical north-west Cumbria. I was in my late 20s. There, I managed to combine town planning and historic town centre renewal with new-build housing and conservation funding. It inspired my first technical journal paper. Ten years later, I would have stayed.

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​But wanderlust took hold! Eventually, London (with Taylor Woodrow) then internationally, in Malawi, Tanzania, New York (with the UN), Ethiopia, Kenya and finally Uganda.

 

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​​The contemplative picture is from Addis Ababa in 2023, leading a GGGI study tour for four Ugandan secondary city mayors and their physical planners, to GGGI Ethiopia.

The professional side of The Expatriate is captured​​

in the book City Management in Developing Countries. 

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Meanwhile, if I had the gumption...