O'Raleigh Brian’s Followers (29)

O'Raleigh Brian

Born

in Manchester, The United Kingdom

January 06, 1941

Website

http://www.odysseyprocess.com

Genre

Fiction, Memoir, Assesible Literary Fiction

Influences

Joseph Campbell, Ernest Hemingway, Bill Wilson, James Hillman,

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Brian O’Raleigh was born into an Irish family in 1941 in the English seaside resort town of Blackpool. He attended St Joseph’s College, Lytham, until the age of 14 when he was expelled for fighting with a Christian brother. At the age of eighteen, accused of being involved in an IRA threat on Blackpool Tower, he emigrated to Australia, just a few steps ahead of English justice. Arriving in Sydney he worked at a dozen different occupations including, salesman, construction worker, driver, bulldozer operator, factory worker, steel fixer, security, trade union official and nightclub bouncer. After his first wife, Jean, left him with their daughter, Kathleen, he realized that his drinking was out of control and volunteered for the 6-Day-War in Brian O’Raleigh was born into an Irish family in 1941 in the English seaside resort town of Blackpool. He attended St Joseph’s College, Lytham, until the age of 14 when he was expelled for fighting with a Christian brother. At the age of eighteen, accused of being involved in an IRA threat on Blackpool Tower, he emigrated to Australia, just a few steps ahead of English justice. Arriving in Sydney he worked at a dozen different occupations including, salesman, construction worker, driver, bulldozer operator, factory worker, steel fixer, security, trade union official and nightclub bouncer. After his first wife, Jean, left him with their daughter, Kathleen, he realized that his drinking was out of control and volunteered for the 6-Day-War in Israel in a desperate attempt to do something decent with his life. He met his second wife, Carol, in Tel Aviv, and for a little while, he managed to control his drinking. But on returning to London a year later, he immediately became involved in nightclub life of ‘The Swinging Sixties’, and, as his alcoholism progressed, became more involved in crime and the associated violence. A year later, after launching a gang assault on the Earls Court police station, in a failed attempt to free a friend, he was forced to flee England once again, and, with police alerts at all International Airports in the UK, he managed to bribe the skipper of a small, French fishing boat to take him to Calais. Carol met up with him a week later and together they journeyed through France, Germany, Austria, Belgrade, Bulgaria, Turkey, crossing the Bosphorus at Istanbul, before traveling through Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, through the Khyber Pass to Pakistan and then on into India, before arriving back in Australia broke, disillusioned and angry.
A year later, still running from his demons, Brian and his wife began building a deep sea sailing boat hoping that this would set him free from the alcoholism he had so despised in his father. But after 4 years of frustration and failed promises and, with Carol about to leave him, he realized one day that the boat would never be completed and he suffered a major collapse and became suicidal. This proved to be the catalyst that began his recovery.
After joining an alcoholic rehabilitation program, Brian never took another drink.
He began writing in 2005 and his first book, ‘The Boy in the Boat’ was widely acclaimed by the Irish and Australian Press. His second work: The Storyteller of Inis Mór, a modern day mystery set on the Irish island of Inis Mor, was lauded by Frank O'Shea, literary critic for The Australian Irish Echo: "Brian O’Raleigh’s new book: The Storyteller of Inis Mor, reminds one of the great Irish writers such as Sean O’Faolain and Benedict Kiely”.

Brian and his wife have lived for the past eight years on the Island of Bali, Indonesia, where he continues to write.

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O'Raleigh Brian's Blog

O'Raleigh Brian isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

Purpose and Passion

Do we all have a Purpose in life’?

August 2017 by Books by Brian O’Raleigh | Edit

From the great blue whale who traverses the depths of the Southern Ocean, to the tiniest amoeba crawling along through the primordial ooze, all things in nature swim, dance, and sing to their own peculiar rhythm; only mankind has lost its direction. Anon.

The concept of finding and following a ‘calling’ is as old

Combine Editions
O'Raleigh Brian’s books

Average rating: 3.81 · 264 ratings · 41 reviews · 5 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Boy in the Boat 3.67 avg rating — 235 ratings — published 2003 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Storyteller of Inis Mor: Could a Legend Save His Life? 4.30 avg rating — 82 ratings — published 2013 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	By Brian O'Raleigh The Boy in the Boat (2nd Second Edition) [Paperback] 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by O'Raleigh Brian (?)

“The journey of a lifetime is within, you are your own destination. Rick Jarow”
― Brian O'Raleigh, The Storyteller of Inis Mor: Could a Legend Save His Life?

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“When they knock you down, stand up. When they knock you down again, stand up. Eventually, they will hurt you so bad that you simply cannot stand up. Then, if you can try just one more time, at that precise moment, they will know that they have lost.”
― Brian O'Raleigh

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