Written by John Ridgway and published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1971 and also by Paperback in 1971 (OUT OF PRINT)

John Ridgway’s Journey to Ardmore has been marked by courage, self-reliance, and a desire to achieve the seemingly impossible. He has known success and failure. His brave bid to be the first man to sail round the world alone non-stop failed; his yacht English Rose IV revealed cracks on the port side of the deck and he had to make for a South American port.

With Chay Blyth, another paratrooper, he successfully rowed the across the North Atlantic, from America to Eire. In an open rowing boat thousands of miles from land he conceived the idea of a school of adventure at Ardmore. Impressed by the permanence of the ocean and the sky, he realised the brevity of human life and decided to help young people appreciate it more fully. For this purpose he chose the remotest part of Great Britain, where the majestic North West Highlands sweep down to the lonely Atlantic. A setting where there is time to think.

Postscript in 2003 by John Ridgway.This book tells of my childhood. In social terms it is about long ago: I’m surprised to see that I never even mention that I was an adopted child, my parents would have been horrified to see that in print. Indeed I was to be 45 years old before I dared ask my Father if my younger brother Michael was my natural brother or not. Families are strange things. Perhaps much of my desperation springs from memories of those early days; fishing alone on the Thames, rowing miles up the river from Datchet to Windsor, and swimming downstream, towing the boat. Always alone.

My two years at RMA Sandhurst were a turning point for me. Becoming Captain of Boxing, a lofty pinnacle I had never dreamed of. Becoming the first officer commissioned directly into the Third Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, a stunning turn of good fortune. Being hounded by able, ambitious senior officers taught me valuable lessons for the future, even if only how to hide in doorways until they had passed…. Only dead fish, swim with the stream.

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