In Complete Circles: The Memoirs and Travels of an Ageing Schoolboy

A comic and at times irreverent memoir of school life and adolescence in a Northern Irish town during the 1980s and early 1990s with accompanying rants on the absurdities of modern life, nostalgic reminiscences on the news events and popular culture of the era and the subsequent fulfillment of youthful ambitions through travelling, sometimes verging on the surreal. This book is part memoir, part travelogue. The chapters alternate between episodes from the author's school days (written in the past tense) and subsequent travel writings (incorporating the Balkans, Australia, New Zealand, Romania, Spain and Morocco) from several years later (written in the present tense) - but always with a connecting theme linking the two eras. Examples include a schoolboy fascination with horror films linking a visit to Transylvania, daily reports of the Balkan war during the author's schooldays in the early '90s linking a tour of the region 15 years later -and a childhood addiction to tangerines and dreams of trekking through the Sahara on camelback leading to a trip to Morocco.

Ciaran Ward was born in Co Tyrone in 1973. He has worked in various jobs including call centre worker, teacher of English as a Foreign Language, librarian, taxidermist and local government information manager. He lives in London. Author of ＂The Dreaming Armadillo＂ blog since 2005, best described as a whimsical commentary on the state of the planet, the life forms which inhabit it and what they do in their spare time - plus anything else which may spring to mind. His spare time interests include amateur drama, long distance walking, cycling, birdwatching, crocodile farming, early ’70s progressive rock bands, falconry, camel racing, deep sea diving and blatantly lying about what he does in his spare time. ＂In Complete Circles＂ is his first book.