Hobby Writing with Nigel Ridgeway

Join author Nigel Ridgeway to chat about self-publishing, the highs, and lows of sharing your writing hobby with the world!

About the author

Nigel was born in Somerset, UK at the end of the war, and was a child of Her Majesty’s services; moving around England, Germany and Jordan. He attended two boarding schools, one in Germany as his father was posted there with the RAF. Part of his high school years were spent at an ex-pat’s school in Amman, Jordan. His father was on secondment to the Jordanian Air Force there.

His early working life was mainly as an unskilled worker, trying many jobs. He emigrated to Australia in 1966 as a ‘Ten Pound Pom,’ arriving in WA after working in Queensland.

Nigel eventually became a West Australian primary teacher for twenty-one years, then a high school relief teacher, while all his adult life he also played music part time.

Nigel has always sailed since high school in Germany, and has had many adventures, sailing both overseas and around the coast of Australia. He has a Yacht Master (Ocean) Certificate.

He still plays music and is the drummer with Perth jazz band The New Orleans Heritage Jazzband . Since retiring he has become a Rottnest guide, and an active member of U3A. He’s always had a passion for writing and wrote, Lotus 11 – an Indian Ocean Adventure (1992) and a ‘sortamemoir’ A Different Drummer in 2020 and in 2022 published ‘Clare – the amazing adventures of our 40 foot wooden ketch. He wrote for ‘Cruising Helmsman’ magazine for 20 years.