What do an urge to write, a sailing yacht and The Daily Mirror have in common?
All were steps that led to the founding of the Globetrotters Club a few days after the end of World War II. I grew up in Wales and I was 18 when the Second World War began. By then, I’d already toured the UK by bicycle and had youth-hosteled in Ireland and Switzerland. That was enough to convince me that it was entirely possible to travel the world without being rich. But World War II abruptly put an end to all civilian travel. So I trained to be come a radio officer in the Merchant Navy and spent the next six years sailing the seas on merchant ships and visiting ports in countries from New Zealand to USA, the Middle East and Sri Lanka. While home on leave in England in 1944 a friend and I purchased a 50-year old sailing yacht that was laid up on the Essex coast. We intended to sail it around the world after the war. At about the same time, I also took a correspondence course in journalism. And by writing while at sea, I began to sell occasional articles to various publications includi
