Michael Richard Brown
Memoirs of migration, resilience, and lived experience.
Explore Michael Richard Brown’s Inspiring Memoir Trilogy
Three compelling memoirs
Take a journey with me through my first eighteen years. My first nine years were spent in an Essex council house, happiest only when I was up a tree or with my dog. Life was shite for all of us. Dad knew something had to change. He shunted us off as ten‑pound poms to an Australian immigration hostel for two godforsaken summers. A better life, he said. It wasn’t. My parents endured the torment. I went bush. When we shifted to Christchurch, I was glad for them, but I missed the bush, something fierce. Early high school was a disaster for this shy introvert. At fifteen I tried for the priesthood and failed. I got sacked from jobs and didn’t care. I needed to find myself. Then, I met Cynthia.
Michael Brown was 18 when he forged his mother’s signature to marry Cynthia. It was bold, romantic, and illegal. The fallout – arrest, job loss, and a forced return to Christchurch – was just the beginning. Set against the backdrop of the Muldoon era, Mike’s story of dazzling highs and sobering lows takes us through careers in the fire service, real estate, and business. It takes us through the life cycle of a loving marriage, the growth of a family, and several attempts to run away from it all. This second memoir is a raw, darkly funny reckoning with love, legacy, and the cost of chasing redemption. It’s about splinters and smoke, and the stubborn belief that maybe, just maybe, he could still get it right”
Book Three “Sailing Yarns to lofty Barns” in this three-part memoir series by Michael Brown opens with a fresh start in the Bay of Islands and leads to 10 years of sailing the tropics. Alongside his third life partner, Mike chases the sun and stars across the South Pacific seeking solitude and calm, all the while, deep down, trying to figure out how to keep connection with his adult children and growing grandchildren. Trading salt spray for soil, a lifestyle block in Motueka beckoned them back to land, to retire. That bought only hard work and further upheaval.
Discover the life journey of Michael Richard Brown.
Michael captures the essence of resilience and redemption in his memoirs, speaking engagements by arrangement – contact info@aboysjourney.com
Transformative Life Stories
An introduction to Michael Richard Brown’s first book