Going Down Another Lane by John Young
After a childhood spent between Africa, British public schools, and the Yorkshire moors, John Young set off alone for New Zealand to be a forester and then to university, paying his way with an assortment of jobs from boatbuilder to wharfie to postman. Pursuing a career on the stage was somehow combined with completing an MA degree, as John energetically threw himself into working out where to live, what to do, and whom to love. He eventually settled on an academic career at the University of Adelaide in South Australia.
John also maintained a parallel career as a social entrepreneur, organising the building of the 100-foot sail training ship, the One and All, and later moving to Tasmania with his wife, Ruth, to start the school of wooden boatbuilding that later became Franklin's famous Wooden Boat Centre.
At 85, John looks back on the many choices made and turns taken in his life with some pride as well as regret at his failure – and still wants to build another boat.
John Young About the author
At 17, after a childhood spent between West Africa, the Yorkshire moors, and English boarding schools, John set off alone for New Zealand to be a forester and then to university, paying his way with an assortment of jobs. He eventually studied at Oxford and settled on an academic career in history and environmental studies at the University of Adelaide. Later, he and his wife Ruth moved to Tasmania to establish the boatbuilding school that has now become the Wooden Boat Centre in Franklin. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on New Zealand, Australian, Pacific, and maritime history, environmental issues, and the educational value of wooden boatbuilding.
Also by John Young
Australia's Pacific Frontier
Casell Australia, 1967
Adventurous Spirits
University of Queensland Press, 1984
A Touch of Magic: the Building of the One and All
1984
Sustaining the Earth
Harvard University Press, 1990
