NHOJ

As a journalist and author, John Lazenby has spent more than forty years chronicling the tales of others. But for much of his life he closely guarded his own compelling story - a long and challenging struggle with childhood dyslexia, unable to read or write at a time when neurodiversity was rarely considered or recognised. Sent away to boarding school at the age of seven, John's future pivoted on the life-changing intervention of a teacher who finally understood the boy whom no one else could teach.

In this warm and poignant memoir, John traces his misadventures through the unforgiving education system of the 1960s, when illiteracy was viewed as a character defect that could be rectified by stern discipline and regular beatings, and takes us on an evocative visit to the not-so-distant past, introducing the kind and eccentric family who never gave up on him - and the array of teachers who did.

We follow the intrepid progress of a boy who could write only one word - his name, spelled backwards - to a man who finally found his true calling after a series of setbacks and false starts, only to make the late discovery that he had travelled through life unaware of a second neurodiversity, hiding in plain sight. Heart-warming, hilarious, raw and shocking, NHOJ is a tribute to overcoming challenges, ignoring barriers and holding on to hope in a world that initially seems to have no place for you.

John Lazenby is an author and journalist with more than forty years' experience in media and publishing, a path that initially seemed unlikely. After being diagnosed with dyslexia as a child, he took a roundabout route into his profession, trying his hand unsuccessfully at a variety of jobs, including selling double glazing, driving a tractor and working in a second-hand car dealership. He finally began his journalism career on local newspapers in Sussex before graduating to national outlets, including the Press Association, the Sunday Times, The Independent, the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian. NHOJ: A Memoir That Started Backwards is his fourth book. John's sports history books, Test of Time, The Strangers Who Came Home and Edging Towards Darkness, have been shortlisted for a range of awards, including the British Sports Book Awards. He now lives in the South Island of New Zealand.