Toowoomba author writes third book in isolation

A Toowoomba man is being very productive with his time in self-isolation, spending time writing his third book.

Angela and Roger Britton.

TOOWOOMBA author Roger Britton says he’s being very productive with his time in self-isolation, writing his third book.

Mr Britton started writing stories about his life 30 years ago, when his kids were growing up.

“When I got married and had children they would always ask what I did when I was at school, and I would tell them the stories,” he said.

“But we had six kids and I got a bit tired of telling them, so I decided to write them down.

“I wrote for my children. They didn’t know my grandparents so I wrote about them, and then I wrote about my parents, and I only had half a book then so I started writing about my life.

“I wrote those stories because the kids loved them.”

Mr Britton wrote the stories for his first book, The Boy with Two Names, while he travelled around NSW working as a teacher.

He eventually moved to Toowoomba in 1993 to become the principal at St Thomas More’s, and has now lived in the Garden City for 27 years.

Mr Britton left his post at St Thomas More’s in 1998 to work on the railways as a tutor for labourers.

“These fellas had left school when they were 14 and a half and the only job they could get was labouring on the railways,” Mr Britton said.

“They would have trouble reading the handbooks because of their lack of education.

“Queensland Rail decided they needed fellas like me to tutor them.

“I had a depot in Toowoomba, Laidley, and Warwick.”

After six months on the railways Mr Britton and his wife Angela moved to China to teach at an all-girls school there.

When their visas ran out and Mr Britton had retired, he and Mrs Britton decided to do lots of travelling, which created plenty of content for Mr Britton’s third book.

“I’m writing a third book called Geriatric Backpackers which is about our travels,” Mr Britton said.

“I’m about a third of the way through it. That’s what I’m doing now in self-isolation.

“It’s just for the fun of it.”

Mr Britton’s first two books, The Boy with Two Names and The Boy with Nine Lives and Some More, are both available on Amazon and the Book Depository.