At 17, after a childhood spent between West Africa, the Yorkshire moors, and an 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 from boatbuilder to wharfie to postman. 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.

Glossary
Chapter 1: The Pig and the Crocodile
Chapter 2: "A Most Likeable Scoundrel?"
Chapter 3: "Un-gentlemanly sentimentalities"
Chapter 4: Youth at Risk
Chapter 5: Actor, Sailor, Boat builder, Failure?
Chapter 6: The Beginning of the getting of wisdom
Chapter 7: "If this be Love indeed, Tell me how much"
Chapter 8: The Challenges of Reality
Chapter 9: Boats, Teaching, Dreaming spires, and Babies
Chapter 10: The course of true love never did run smooth
Chapter 11: Building a Career
Chapter 12: Babes in the Wood
Chapter 13: Adelaide History and the South Seas
Chapter 14: Midlife Complexity
Chapter 15: One and All
Chapter 16: "Earth might be fair and all men glad and wise"