Watford to Woolloomooloo

Born in São Paulo, 1953 and raised in Watford, John Moxley left school at 16, joined the Merchant Navy and went to sea in the late 1960’s to escape his criminal past. His adventures led him into numerous hotspots where he crossed swords with, among others, American bikers, manic seamen, the forces of law and order, and a psychotic Maori. He explains how the naivety of youth took him within a hair’s breadth of being jailed for drug smuggling, how his first trip as an officer found him in the Vietnam warzone, and how his rebellious nature brought him close to blows with his Captain before jumping ship. He fled two days before a court appearance and worked his way around Australia and New Zealand, from a dockside bar as a bouncer to a sugar plantation in far north Queensland. He returned to London at the forefront of the punk revolution of ’77 before eventually settling down to become an honest financier. This is an authentic tale told at a reckless pace without gloss or sentimentality but with plenty of humour.