John Cheshire

I used to enjoy English Literature at school where we read the traditional classic novels and plays leading to ‘O’-levels.  But I was far more engrossed reading technical books rather than “Far from the Madding Crowd” or “Death of a Salesman”.  My degree was a combination of Computer Science and Electronics and at that time the main frame computer occupied a substantial basement, served the whole University, yet had less computer power than an iPhone.

Following a decade working at BT’s Research and Development centre, developing many interesting and leading-edge products and services, I was head-hunted into a prestigious Big-4 Consultancy.  At that time, I was helping client’s tackle major issues that had arisen from regulatory and competitive pressures.  My client base was very international with many in Europe but a growing number further afield including the Caribbean, South Africa, Middle East, Russia and China.

I was often asked what a day in the life of an international consultant looked like.  At a simplistic level a large proportion of time would be consumed with getting to/from airports, waiting for delayed flights, checking into hotels at midnight and out six hours later.   Some weeks would involve flying between five countries and remembering which hotel room number you were in became challenging.  A common supplementary question would relate to which tourist locations we had chance to visit whilst in a particular country.  The answer was none, and the principal absorption of the local environment was during the taxi journeys in and out of client sites.

This all changed somewhat when my clients were further afield.  In Jamaica, I would stay for several weeks at a time.  During the weekends, I would visit an excellent second-hand bookshop and enjoy reading sitting under a mango tree by the pool.  At the time it did occur to me that I should write a novel of my own. I did - albeit 20 years later.