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About the Author
 Spencer Ratcliff was born in England two years after the end of World War Two. He grew up in much the same low socio economic environment as the rest of the non gentrified British peoples; and as a boy who’d read and relished Stevenson’s Treasure Island; he yearned to travel and explore the planet, particularly the South Seas.
Following a great deal of hard work, various factory jobs and a spell working in a mental institution, his dream of becoming a journalist came true and after his four years of training, he applied for permission to become a ‘Ten Pound Pom’.
He had met many Australians who had whet his appetite for travel Down Under and he was more than ready for the challenges that lay ahead – or so he thought. The culture shock was wonderful and Spencer revelled in all that befell him.
For two years he absorbed all things Australian as he worked as a reporter for ABC radio – both in Sydney and in the country. What he also absorbed was an undying love and respect for the country and its larrikin people who would often tease and torment him relentlessly, even though at the time he often didn’t even realise it.
After returning to the United Kingdom to “get it out of his system” he worked for Britain’s largest group of newspapers, a job that took him to Belfast to cover the Ulster Civil War at one of its worst periods.
On his way back to Oz in 1975 he stopped off in Africa to visit some dear Australian friends – and ended up living and working there for three exciting and dangerous years. He accepted employment in Rhodesia as a journalist on the then national newspaper The Rhodesia Herald and later with its sister paper The Sunday Mail.
His adventures as a war and political writer are also included in this book as he found himself living with Australians and surrounded by Brits and Aussies in that unfortunate African nation at that exhilarating and critical time.
In 1978 - shortly before the creation of Zimbabwe - he left to finally return to his ‘beautiful Australia’. Since then he has worked as the Chief of Staff of a popular Sydney suburban daily newspaper, the editor of a newspaper in the Blue Mountains; and the creator, owner and editor of his own highly successful magazine.
In 2007 he sold the magazine with a determination to finally start writing novels, plays and scripts. This is his first offering.
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