About this title.
In this deeply introspective and offbeat memoir, Colin Amery reveals much of his non-conformist personality. From Cold War spy in Germany to articled clerk in London, from toilet-cleaner in Sydney to wandering poet, from tarot reader to barrister, Colin has travelled a colourful path, which he describes with candour. Born in England into a well-to-do family, Colin was a dreamer who escaped from difficulties at home and school into books about far-off places. He later made his own way to those places he had read about, as his search for spiritual enlightenment and mystical Atlantis carried him across the world from England to Spain, Greece and Egypt in the seventies. A fateful meeting at a poetry evening with artist Yvonne Gatton marked a crucial change of direction for Colin, resulting in a happy marriage and his coming full circle back to the law. His criminal law practice has seen some of his cases make headlines both nationally and internationally, such as his private prosecution of the Rainbow Warrior saboteurs. This is an account that, like Colin's life, is never predicatable and always fascinating.
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About this Author.
Colin, who was born in Essex, England, has always been a controversial figure whether as a protester against nuclear weapons, conditions for the politically oppressed in Chile, Indonesia and elsewhere. He speaks five languages including Russian, French and Spanish. He lived in Spain for two years and this included writing articles for Guidepost and interviewing filmstars and royalty amongst others. In his travels around the Mediterranean he visited the suggested sites for Atlantis sought out characters from Durrell's Alexandria Quartet in that sensuous city. On his return to England, he wrote 'New Atlantis, the Secret of the Sphinx' and this was published in 1976, the year he came to live in New Zealand permanently. He has a son, Simon from his first marriage and a daughter, Tara, from his second marriage. He married Yvonne in 1987 and they live at the edge of the Manukau Harbour in Auckland. He has travelled widely in the Pacific including around the rim of Australia's coast. He now works as a barrister and his legal circuit is centred in South Auckland mainly in criminal and immigration cases and he has frequently appeared in media interviews, perhaps the most controversial the so-called burqa case where he challenged the right of women witnesses to appear in New Zealand courts dressed from head to toe in the all-enveloping burqa.
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