Now That Life Is Over

What was life like growing up as a baby boomer in Apartheid South Africa? The author looks back with wry humour and ironic touches on his early life in South Africa, and recalls the twists and turns that took him through the rest of his life as a rolling stone, or loose cannon, forever chasing rainbows in many countries, with occupations ranging from Professor of English in South Africa to hotelier in Scotland. "I have had so many different lifetimes compacted into a single lifetime, and each lifetime-in South Africa, England, Scotland, Nova Scotia, New Zealand, and finally Spain-saw a dream come true," he concludes. "The song 'Don't fence me in' comes to mind-though in a sense I long to be fenced in, to find myself safe and settled in a permanent home with my soul mate." Still seeking a permanent safe harbour, or sanctuary at the end of the rainbow, he is, by the end of the book, perhaps "running on empty" as his final allotted years, days or moments, peter out in Spain.