If you’ve arrived here looking for Travelman, welcome – you’re in the right place.

At twenty three, Jerry Bridge returns to Britain after eighteen months travelling overland to Australia with little money, no job and only one thought in his head: how soon can he ‘hit the road’ again? The year is 1983.

Back at his parents’ home in London, his father has other ideas. A veteran of the travel industry himself, he tells Jerry it’s time to settle down, find a proper job and start thinking about his future. Travel, he suggests, might not be a bad place to start.

After a disastrous first interview, Jerry lands a job in Earls Court Road at Trailfinders, one of the UK’s largest independent travel agencies. At first he struggles, but gradually learns how to sell travel over the telephone, understand what makes people buy holidays and turn his own passion for seeing the world into a career. Within a year, he’s the company’s top sales consultant.

Then he does something few would consider sensible. He hands in his notice.

Convinced he can do things differently, Jerry sets up Bridge the World and takes on the company that taught him everything he knows. What begins in a small, musty-smelling antique shop in Camden Town grows into one of Britain’s leading long-haul travel companies, employing 150 people and sending thousands of customers to far-flung places around the world.

Along the way, Jerry never loses the urge to travel himself. Interspersed with the highs and lows of building the business are his own travel tales, adventures and encounters from around the world, revealing how a lifelong love of travel led, almost by accident, to him becoming a successful entrepreneur.

But building a business brings problems of its own. The Gulf War shakes confidence in international travel. New competitors arrive on the scene. The internet and online booking begins to change the way people book their holidays. Then 9/11 brings the industry to a standstill. Bridge the World may be selling more travel than ever, but with overheads escalating, making money is not so easy.

With everything he has built suddenly at risk, Jerry faces his biggest decision yet. Should he keep going, sell up, buy a competitor or join forces with someone bigger?

Travelman is the story of a life shaped by travel, of turning wanderlust into a business, and of discovering just how far you are prepared to go when the journey takes an unexpected turn.

I hope you’ll click through to my website – travelman.nz – that’s where you’ll find an outline of the story, along with photographs and news about the launch.