A Journey of Awakening

By Ron Farquhar

Published by M–Y Books Ltd 

£7.99 (282 pages)

ISBN 9781906986728

“I do not judge a man for what he is, but, what he may become”.

(Albert Schweitzer)

It is said that everyone has a book in them waiting to be written.  This one is the autobiography, not of a well-known personality, but of a local boy made good after the worst of all possible starts in life. Through many trials and tribulations, he eventually turned it all around to help others – and in so doing, helped himself.

The usual way I review a book is to skip quickly through the uninteresting passages and concentrate on those chapters that catch my attention. In this instance I didn’t skip many pages before I found myself hooked on every word of “Journey of Awakening”. Ron Farquhar is a natural story teller and did well to recall so many events in such great detail over his lifetime. Surprisingly, it is so well constructed that it was easy to believe this was the work of an established author. 

His mother was a young gypsy flower seller from Belvedere and his father an habitual thief. She regularly frequented local pubs around Erith and Woolwich, dispensing personal favours, whilst his father was earning a living breaking and entering. Young Ron was seven when war broke out and he was shunted around to various places of safety whilst his father was away in the army and mother was busy selling her services to the local soldiers. He chronicles each event and experience with total honesty and sensibility and you won’t find any metaphors or euphemisms here.

His criminal record began whilst still at school, when he was caught with cash stolen from a charity collection box and he later graduated into burglary and safe breaking, as well as having a very short fuse temper that often resulted in him using physical violence. It would have been easy to dismiss him as a no-hoper as many did, but it is difficult not to have some sympathy for the way the cards always appeared to be stacked against him.

But miraculously against all the odds he managed to turn his life around whilst serving a three year prison sentence for a crime he swears he never committed. He discovered an interest in religion and became influenced by non-conformist groups based on humanistic psychology, which has stayed with him ever since. On leaving prison, he set about becoming a useful member of society, teaching in prisons, giving talks to youth groups and taking up sculptor. He is now a volunteer member of the Religious Society of Friends and devotes his retirement years to selfless altruism.

This is no tub-thumping religious tract, but a true story of triumph over adversity and is a must for anyone thinking it is impossible to transform their life. I commend it as a very good read from this local boy made good.

JOHN STEWARD