David was born in Matlock Derbyshire in the Peak District and at an early age came to appreciate wild open countryside and many species of wildlife. He failed to complete his education and as a result he started work in the catering industry; a job which required no higher qualifications or a university degree. He ended up as an Area Manager responsible for 8 fast food restaurants.
As a young man David suffered a serious accident whilst rock climbing, resulting in a smashed right leg and two compressed vertebrae. After six months in hospital and almost as long in plaster, six operations and a leg brace worn for a year, he took long distance walks as rehabilitation, at first in Britain then in Morocco, including the ascent of Mount Toubkal. This followed a solo-crossing of the western half of Switzerland. David by then had caught the travel bug and went to Malaysia and Japan where he climbed to the summit of Fujiyama before he accepted a challenge to walk 100 kilometers in the Himalaya in Nepal and raised four thousand pounds for Cancer Research U.K.
David has been married to Sylvia for 41 years and having been made redundant for the fifth time in his career he decided it was time to take early retirement and so moved to Spain five years ago and lives in a village near Fuente Alamo. He has written his second book following his further travels to countries in Europe, Asia and Africa, again liberally sprinkled with wildlife sightings. The book contains over 50 photographs and will be available early in 2012.
Travels of an Everyday Man
This is David Ferguson Elliot’s first book and is well worth a read. It starts with David’s walks on Dartmoor and you can tell straight away that he loves being out in the fresh air and this is evident throughout his book.
David has achieved things that most of us would only dream of and it is obvious that he is a very determined character. The book is easy to read and you want to find out what the next challenge David is prepared to conquer. My only criticism is there are some spelling and grammatical errors throughout the book, but as a proof reader, these stand out to me. Apparently the book was published in the US, so that probably explains the errors. Maybe a map showing the various treks would also have helped for those who are unsure of their geography.
I look forward to reading David’s second book.
Travels of an Everyday Man is available online from Amazon, Google Books and Barnes and Noble.