The contents of this book have taken a lifetime to collect.  Putting them on paper has taken nearly as long.  It has been written in little bits over a fairly long period but as life progresses and business and work commitments become fewer and fewer, more time becomes available to finish what was started as a little challenge.

Could I write it all down? And more importantly, could I remember it all, after all, we are talking about more than 75 years of memory.  That’s a long time and as sometimes I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday, I found that committing things to paper was a real memory jogger.

When searching for a title of this book I sought assistance from friend and colleagues.  Many suggestions were forthcoming which seemed to revolve around my name and certain movies of a particular relative named James. As I have lived with this since Dr. No appeared on the scene I tended to overlook the connection;  my friends and colleagues didn’t.  Several excellent titles were proffered,including some which were not quite appropriate for a novel title.

Eventually, I decided to move away from the ‘Bond’ theme and went for something a little more conservative and probably less provocative.  Many thanks to all who contributed and as a consolation, I have included a selection of the printable ones in an appendix to the book.

Many of the stories in the book have been recounted several times throughout my lifetime and some minor changes to some events may have crept in.Memory does that.   I can assure readers,with my hand on my heart, that most of the details in the stories are true to life.   

 Except for one little event which I may have dreamt about but it felt so real I included it.

Why did I write the book?  Well, I have always liked a challenge and due to a little infirmity and trying to slowdown a little, I thought it would be an interesting challenge. Secondly, I wanted to share some of the more humorous events as everyone knows, laughter is a great medicine.

I hope that somebody, somewhere enjoys reading.