Dear News Of The Area,

GO on, admit it.  You’re guilty of vanity Googling. We all do it and we all justify doing so.

My explanation is that I’m knocking on heaven’s door and I want to know what kind of a cyber record I’ll leave behind.

I’ve lived a crowded life: many countries, many jobs, many partners.

My memory is overloaded and failing but I didn’t realise just how unreliable it has become until I vanity Googled.

We were certainly living in London at the outbreak of World War 2.  To this day I am something of a pacifist, however I’m damned if I recall being a prominent young conscientious objector who apparently recanted to be a RNZAF fighter pilot in France in 1944.

I enjoy golf, bush-walking and body-surfing but I had quite forgotten playing Sheffield Shield cricket for New South Wales and Victoria or over 1100 AFL games for Fitzroy or even representing South Africa as a distance runner in the Olympics.  Little wonder I was honoured in Canada’s Saskatoon hall of fame as 1965 Kinsman Sportsman of the year.

I was a writer of unusual diversity.

In the United States I was the “highly respected editor” of the California Farmer magazine with memorable headlines like “Cow Powered Milk Truck Debuts”.

For the Christadelphian Church, I was the author of “Balancing the Book, A Study of Biblical Paradoxes”.

In New Zealand I wrote the biography of three times Wimbledon champion, Anthony Wilding, and “Coal, Class and Community: A History of the United Mineworkers Union”.  In Australia I published “The Bitter Years: Wollongong During the Great Depression”.  I returned to authoring in 2009 with “Ultimate PC Secrets”, a PC repair manual.

You may remember the 1960s Toowoomba band The Countdowns and their album “Life Begins at 40”.

As the local butcher I doubled on drums, which might explain why my hearing is failing. I went on, in the 1990s, to record as vocalist “Just to Hear Him Sing” which you can download as a ringtone for your mobile.

Many years later, back in Toowoomba, I took part in the hot-rod High Altitude Run in my “extremely well finished and finely detailed ’36 5-window coupe” (don’t ask).

I had a career as a Clinical Psychologist in California which may have been helpful for my transition to film-maker.

I produced a film which I would have titled “Cannabis Cures Cancer” but for the threat of being sued for making such a claim.

Google found almost five million entries for my not-so-common name – no, I didn’t read them all, I gave up after the unkindest cut of all.  According to Huffington Post I have just one friend.

 

Len Richardson,

Hawks Nest