Post 1

So here's my blog. What does one write in a blog anyway? Whatever I want I suppose.
Let's start at the beginning. I wrote a book. I didn't really mean to write a book; it was a hobby that got out of control.
I wanted to know more about history because I had realised, much to my horror, that my knowledge of historical events was woefully inadequate. So I read and I read some more and I began to learn. Then one day I realised that my casual interest was becoming a passion; bordering on an obsession. I started making notes so that I would not forget what I had gone to all the trouble of learning.
Years passed. Stuff happened. Life went on.
In 2007 I was given a desk calender for Christmas by my wife Adele. It was entitled 'The Know it All.' I guess she thought it was appropriate for some reason. It was a 'quote-a-day' kind of thing written by a chap called A.J. Jacobs who had taken it upon himself to read and attempt to inwardly digest the entire Encyclopaedia Brittanica over the course of a single year.
This was the lightbulb moment that set me off writing. Jacobs wrote about the experience of learning as much as the facts that he was actually absorbing and I thought to myself: Hey, I could do that! 5 years and 270,000 words later, I had a book.
And that was how it started folks. So be careful what you read; you don't know where it might lead. More later. SBJ