A Soldier's Wind (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781941066096)

Stuart Riddell is a 1929 Model, born on a farm on Vancouver Island. B. C. Canada. In 1938 his mother moved them to London, in a failed attempt to re-unite with his father. Then they were evacuated to Canada when the bombs started to fall on Britain. After high school he attended the Royal Canadian Naval College and the RCAFs. In 1958 he bought a 53' classic sailing ketch named Romayne, and with a crew of six; male and female (including his dear friend Emily) sailed to New Zealand via San Francisco, Mexico, and Tahiti. In 1960 Stuart and Emily were married in Auckland. They all sailed back to Vancouver having logged 25,000 miles on that voyage. They immigrated to Sausalito California. They raised a son and a daughter. He became a real estate salesman for six years. In 1970 the family went to England and bought a 43' sailing cutter and cruised the Baltic. Then sailed to France, stored the mast on deck and motored up the river Seine to Paris, then crossed France and down the river Rhone to the Mediterranean and on to Greece. They chartered their cutter as owners for four years. They sold the vessel and settled in Florida where their youngsters graduated from high school and thence to college. Stuart took up yacht surveying and with Emily moved back to Sausalito Calif. He sold his business after 20 years, when oral cancer struck. He took a year off to recover from the illness and retire. He became immersed in creative writing which encouraged him to write his debut novel during the last decade. He has discovered that retirement and writing are an excellent and awesome activity and he says he will continue until his fingers can no longer perform on the keyboard. Stuart and Emily are living in their floating home in Sausalito after 55 years together. He agrees with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 'Whatever you can do or dream you can: Begin it. Boldness has a genius, power and magic in it.'