Long Road, Hard Lessons: Ireland to Japan by Bicycle - a Gruelling Test of a Father and Son's Relationship

Aged 50, Mark Swain left his slippers by the fire and set off with his 18yr old son on a cycle expedition from Ireland to Japan. We ll train on the way, he said. Physical challenges, border bureaucracy, health scares and traffic hazards were all anticipated. What they underestimated was the conflict they faced, spending 24hrs a day together under such arduous conditions.

On one level, a life-changing travel adventure, this book also takes time to look at the psychological journey made by parents and children. The accounts of the son s attempts to break away from his father, to find his own individual place in the world are moving and insightful. Yet at every turn, these thoughts are lightened by humour and juxtaposed with vivid descriptions of the countries and people they encounter along their way. We witness how conflict teaches us things that we did not expect to learn, and how much the parent can learn from the child.

Includes 25 glossy colour photographs and 7 maps.

Mark Swain was born in Singapore in 1958, where his father was stationed in the RAF. He has lived in many countries, and as a young man found it hard to break the habit of a nomadic life, spending a great deal of his youth hitchhiking around Europe.

With a low boredom threshold, Mark has had dozens of jobs and quite a few careers, but only one wife. Studying Graphic Design at Hastings College of Art, he soon joined the Army in search of adventure. At one point he found himself travelling the world on the QE2 as a silver-service waiter and going to the Falklands war.

As a TEFL teacher, he went to Tokyo in 1984, where he met his wife Lorna. Between then and now, Mark has run a language business in Barcelona, customised VW Beetles, worked as a systems analyst and completed a degree in 3D design. Eventually he stood still long enough to set up a risk management and business training company. At 54, when not writing, he still works as a management consultant and trainer for Systems2 Consulting Ltd, the company he founded in 1998. He sleeps little, yet there are never enough hours in his day.

Mark and his wife Lorna have three grown-up children and live in Canterbury, Kent. He plans to repeat his cycle trip with his grandchildren, when they arrive.