WONDER, THUNDER & BLUNDER DOWN UNDER

Spencer Ratcliff

Tales of a Ten Pound Pom

In 1970, a wide-eyed adventure hungry young journalist waved goodbye to his native England and - like millions of naive Poms before him - set foot on Australian soil to commence an amazing adventure.

Spencer was hungry for knowledge and eager to explore and report on his new and very different world on the other side of the globe. His naivety led to some hilarious and often dangerous predicaments.

The biggest threats to his survival came not from the snakes or spiders, but from the larrikin Aussie men and the luscious Aussie women who saw him as a novelty; an English plaything to be toyed with, teased, tormented and almost tortured.

Through the energetic eyes and all the other alert senses of the author, the book recounts numerous tales of what confronted him as a Ten Pound Pom and how he in turn handled, or mishandled his tormentors.

The book thrusts the reader back almost forty years to an era when entry to the huge arid continent was relatively simple and uncomplicated and to a time when Poms were deserting the Old Dart for compelling reasons.

Australia offered a future, hope, sunshine, space, a much better standard of living, plus, of course a magnificent adventure.

The Tales - or in some cases Telltales - will also take millions of 'New Australians' on a nostalgic mental journey back to a time when discovery was delightfully less complex and oh so much fun.
The book spans 18 years of the journalist's life and takes the reader with him and his closest most colourful Aussie 'mates' to England, Africa, Israel and America, before returning them all home to Australia which the author considers to be the most wonderful country in the world.

The stories gives Messers Athos and Pathos a solid workout and are a delightful and stimulating blend of Australian born anecdotes and other journalistic encounters that vary from hilarious to horrifying.

'WONDER, THUNDER & BLUNDER DOWN UNDER' - Tales of a Ten Pound Pom is an amusing, tear-jerking and compelling read for all Australian migrants and the millions of Poms who have relatives and friends in the land Down Under. By our reckoning, that´s the whole of Australia and Britain.

Visit the official website for more information:
www.tenpoundpom.com.au