Keeping people on their toes since 1987

From the age of 13, for a decade, I appointed myself as Editor of a small magazine called Daydream. There was only ever one reader, and she loved it.

By the time it got to my final year at university I had to give up publishing for a bit, because I was writing spoof documentaries for student radio. All this climaxed with winning a national Student Radio Association award at a fancy-pants ceremony in the O2 in London. You can see that place from space. Some would say I peaked too soon, but I’d already won an “Oscar” for a short film I made at sixth form college, and it got a big screen premiere at the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse cinema.

Nowhere left to go? All burned out at 23?

I decided not. What followed was a year of broadcast journalism until one evening I found myself making a fantasy map… I thought, most people watch stuff on Netflix to unwind, what is going on here? So I contacted the designer of some of my favourite maps, and what do you know – soon I was designing a network map for buses in Northampton.

Finally, I peaked.

Or did I? I’d been very fortunate to go on lots of holidays as a boy, even when my parents had very little money. I also lived in Mauritius and went to school there for a year. But I wanted to live in more places, to see how it might compare to what I was used to in the UK. Having dipped a toe in the Mediterranean waters of France, followed by Spain, I then ventured slightly further to Casablanca, Morocco, before finally dialling it up to 11 and going to the opposite side of the planet, spending two years in Australia.

In Australia I accidentally accumulated enough Qantas points for a trip around the world. So off I went.