My first wild geography lesson begins in London when I am eight years old: I sail with my family across the Atlantic in a freighter captained by my father; like Jason and the Argonauts we navigate our way up the St. Lawrence River to Lake Superior, and then battle our way back home in a hurricane. No sooner have I returned to England than my family moves to Kuwait, where my hot days playing in the desert sun only come to an end when I am ordered back to school in England.
