Humphrey Hawksley

Humphrey Hawksley left school at 17 to become a deckhand on a cargo freighter. It got him to Queensland, Australia, where, for the next few years he earned a living building sail boats, picking fruit, fixing the railways and doing anything that would pay the rent, fill the belly and get him to his next destination. Back in England he became a journalist. His first job was to write about glass ashtrays. Then he joined a London news agency where the pay was so appalling that he became a race horse handler in order to get a free flight back to Australia. Once there, he joined the Melbourne Herald, moved onto the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong and, deciding to risk poverty in Britain again, came back and got work with the BBC. He draws on his experience as a correspondent to write his books and divides his time between writing and reporting. He lives with his wife, Jonie and son, Christopher.