Soldier, dispenser, mortician, army officer. During his thirty-seven years in the army, he saw service in Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Malaya, France and Germany, not to mention the more exotic places like Hull, Catterick and Stoke-on-Trent, finishing up in Ludgershall, Wiltshire.

He is probably the only soldier ever to have ridden onto the Queen's Birthday Parade on a bicycle!

His CV would also include market trader (china, glass and earthenware,) playwright, songwriter, theatre administrator, partially deaf, arthritic bongo-player and born again cyclist! Peter has led a hugely colourful life and now travels around the country giving entertaining and illustrated talks.

Whether as an after-dinner speaker or a guest at clubs and societies, Peter's unique take on life means that he is in high demand. His talks have been described as "a witty dialogue of anecdotes that kept his audience in stitches" but the written word cannot do justice to the tales that he has to tell as his performance has the audience enthralled.

Following his retirement, in 1997 he cycled from Amman to Aqaba in Jordan, then, at the age of 69, he cycled 270 miles through Cuba, staying on after the ride to explore the island. Both rides were in aid of the National Deaf Children's Society for which he raised over £5,500 through sponsorship. He has also raised considerable sums of money for St John’s School for the Deaf in The Gambia, and he and his wife, Pat, helped to fund a Gambian nursery school that is now maintained by the priest and parishioners of a church in Scotland.

His travels in Southern Africa with older cousin Sybil Mills, have found him white-water rafting the Zambesi, funding the provision of water to a village in Zimbabwe, thus enabling a family to start farming, "adopting" the Zimbabwean family (which he and his family still support), photographing wild life in Namibia and South Africa and being in the Kalahari Desert at Easter 2005, when a year's rainfall fell in six hours, causing flooding, 5 days isolation and loss of communication with the outside world!

Born out of wedlock and fostered at birth, with the help of an Australian genealogist, he has discovered relatives by the score in Australia. He and Pat have visited them twice; the first time to meet them, the second time to try to remember who they all were!

Illustrated talks (with slides):
GERIATRIC ON A BIKE IN JORDAN
GERIATRIC ON A BIKE IN CUBA
GERIATRICS WANDERING ABROAD: photographing wildlife with Sybil
THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BLANKET; discovering family in Oz and South Africa

Requirements: 13amp power point, table. Provides own projector and screen. Fee negotiable.

Just talking:
I JOINED THE ARMY TO SEE THE WORLD AND LANDED UP IN STOKE-ON-TRENT
THE FIRST EIGHTY YEARS: remembering the best bits!

The talks can last from 45 to 75 minutes and the fee, which is negotiable, can be between £50 and £500 plus travel allowance.

Find out how to contact Peter or read some reviews.