Raymond Walley in his book A Peripatetic Life describes his life and travels. In the opening pages of the book he says that he is diagnosed with advanced form of postrate cancer and has good three to five years of his life so, he wants to share his interesting life for two possible purposes, one to serve as a warning to young people to plan the future better than he did and secondly to be seen as a lesson that achievement and fame can be had by anyone willing to study widely, learn from their experiences and see mistakes as just another way of gaining knowledge.
The author describes his childhood and how his father wasn't able to afford a bicycle. So, he was forced made a cycle from materials collected from scrap yard and master the art of cycling with the help of his father, though after a year he got one for himself, that had gears and a dynamo to charge the lights. He called it “very posh”. I loved the fact where he described that when his father died of a heart attack, over 300 people gathered for his funeral. I just learned a life lesson, that loyalty and trust cannot be purchased, that has to be earned.
He describes the change of jobs he had, one being a part of railways, again getting into Army and latter he went on to a Cipher school. In his life he went into bankruptcy once and worked as a houseman working as a cook for a wealthy family, getting him to subtle way of life.
He realized that this isn't what he can do for a life time, so he went to Saudi Arabia to to work for an American company who were looking for military trained communications personnel.
Latter he also learned psychometrics, to help him access people better and to improve the recruitment process, for a company called as EDGO.
He has also described his travels that he took in his lifetime and I even wish that if it is possible for me to make those trips in my life. I'm inspired by his travel stories, the people he met and the adventures he had, languages learnt and even learning photography.
If you look at the life our author has lived in his 70+ years on earth I personally can say its a life well lived.
Yes, there were ups and downs in his career but its said “All well that ends well.” He simply wishes that he can get to relive the life all over again, barring the cancer he has.
I just love the pace and the unique content of the book, as it describes a person's story rather than a fictional story. This book was "OnlineBookClub.org Book of the Day"
Read more about the book at Online Book Club
