Previously Published Book
Memoir
This story is an inspirational account of a young boy growing up in Melbourne during the 1950s… It tells how he escaped from a traumatic home life with a limited education, how he rode a bicycle 33 km a day to and from his first job and how he eventually married and set up a successful business working from home with the world at his feet.
Be with him as he takes to bushwalking, not for the exercise or the challenge but to escape, to find solace and maybe friends away from his toxic home environment. Despite the best efforts of a caring and loving mother, see how his tyrannical father transforms an innocent, sensitive and artistic little boy into a rampantly cynical and screwed up adult with serious personal issues.
Be amazed as Rick manages to overcome it all without taking to drink or drugs, get married, have children, set up a successful business and achieve what he thought was the perfect lifestyle.
Follow the journey as he loses it all; his wife and family, his business and his dignity. And at age 43, how he found himself in the dole queue living his worst nightmare away from family and without friends or money.
Watch as Rick against the odds slowly climbs from the abyss to finally succeed in ticking off most of the items currently on his bucket list. Rick hopes his experiences will inspire fellow baby-boomers and remind them that there but for the grace of God go all of us.
This story includes historical photographs, the author's original watercolour painting and his hand drawn map.
This memoir could easily be compared to a modern version of 'A Fortunate Life' by Albert Facey. Rick Anderson caught me unawares with his prosaic and matter of fact style of writing about an ordinary bloke's life story…entertaining, funny, sad and typically Aussie.