On the road to Kosciuszko

This is an historic moment - the first post on my blog. It’s about how I came to write about my first book ‘Out of Latvia’. Where did it start?

Well, I met the hero of the book, Peter Jirgens in 2013, on a charity bike ride called Ride to the Top, which I’ve been associated with since it inception. It’s a ride from Sydney to Mt Kosciuszko, where we raise funds for Hope Street, a charity in the inner city of Sydney.

Peter kept the team spellbound as they sat in a cabin on the outskirts of Jindabyne. Over three nights he recounted his hitchhiking adventures and his dangerous mission to sneak into communist controlled Latvia in 1980 to find his family. When he finished his tale, I pleaded with Peter for permission to write his story. He said, “Go for it.”