'This memoir is sub-titled “the extraordinary memoirs of an ordinary man”. Born in Holland, the author has lived in six countries on three continents. The Simons family were caught in the tumult of the last century and emigrated no less than four times: in many ways they embody the 20th century migrant experience.
'Kosti Simons is a novelist, playwright, marine journalist and now biographer. He pioneered a coffee plantation in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, pioneered the Highlands Highway in P.N.G., pioneered the art of ferro-cement boat-building in Australia with a 38-foot yacht, pioneered the revival of a thousand year old pilgrimage road in the north of Spain (in 2010 it carried 250,000 pilgrims), and in 1993 founded a successful Passion Play in South-East Queensland, unique in this country as it has a purpose-built venue. It is still current.
'Appointed as the master of a coastal vessel in the islands at age nineteen, he has sailed in numerous Sydney-Hobart Races, cruised the Pacific islands, cruised extensively through the Mediterranean in his second yacht built in England, lived on his boat with his family in Barcelona Harbour for twelve years, sailed the Barrier Reef, managed Arts Council tours, and built a stone cottage with his wife. That is where he is now.
'The mainspring of this autobiography, and its justification, has been a lifelong search for the spiritual dimension to life. While always at least a nominal Protestant, at age fifty he underwent an epiphany at Lourdes in France. This sets the tone for Part 2 of this memoir, with visits to Vietnam and Russia and particularly Israel providing a fitting climax to his story. The writer has taken advantage of his playwrighting experience to write dialogue emanating from the Lord Jesus Christ. '
Source: Publisher's blurb.
