John Staniland

I am an intrepid traveller, having visited some seventy-odd countries over the years and keen to add more to the list. I am also someone who has played a great deal of sport over the years and still keeps fit and active daily. I retain a lifelong passion for rugby. In retirement, I have revisited scores of old journals filled with longhand scribblings from my travels. This raw material has been turned into a series of entertaining, humorous and thought-provoking books in what I consider a Brysonesque style. My first two books are rugby orientated. First, I travelled to Australia (via India and Singapore) and followed the British Lions rugby tour in 2001. This journey took me all around the island continent over three months. Life with the Lions, (subtitled Rugby and travel adventures following the British and Irish Lions tour of 2001) results from this adventure. In 2017, I took a close look at a young England Rugby side touring in Argentina and then used the opportunity to travel further around South America. Then, switching continents, I visited Japan to see how the Rugby World Cup 2019 panned out with several newish thrusters breaking into the team. This resulted in Following the Rising Sons (subtitled Rugby adventures from South America to Japan) These two books are published through Amazon KDP. I now have two travelogues detailing my journeying throughout S E Asia in preparation with Troubador, with more travelogues to follow. The new books are entitled Midlife Meanderings in South East Asia, slated for November 23 publication, and Searching for My Shangri La - Travels in SE Asia to follow a month later.