This is the story of a tormented man who lived through many adventures and who at last found peace in Malta.
It was in a Bugibba bar that he met a mutual friend and passed on the book to me.
In his introduction he also mentions Susan and Chris of Bella Wine Bar, Boutique and Cafe in Qawra and thanks them for their support and encouragement while he rewrote the book.
He also thanks Tracy, owner of Soul Solutions Spa in Qawra as well for her revitalizing holistic therapy and reflexology which replenished his energy to continue working.
The story begins in 1978 when, at 16 years, he moved back to Wales to complete his apprenticeship. His life quickly takes on a series of disasters. His father dies in an accident at home. His former girlfriend claims she is pregnant and sues.
But there are lucky breaks too. At 27, he is off to South Africa as a welding inspector. He got to love the country, less so its people but the worst was an operation to stitch back his thumb. He also had to cope with an ex-girlfriend from Swansea who turned up but quickly became homesick.
Back in Wales from his South Africa contract, he was soon offered a new contract in Iran (September 1990) where this budding engineer learned to produce alcohol in a teetotal country. That was not the only illegality. He was given a bag of marijuana seeds and planted them in his backyard, soon having a forest of marijuana plants. Earlier he was due to fly out but somehow postponed due to pressure of work. He was lucky: the plane he was due on had a bomb and exploded in mid-air. No survivors.
It was while he was back home on leave that he met his first wife. He does not tell us her name but only that she was a very grasping woman, so insensitive as to wear skin-tight clothes on a holiday in Tunisia.
His next contract was in Saudi Arabia and the only way for his girlfriend to be allowed in was for them to get married. Predictably, the marriage did not last long.
Life in Riyadh was tough - no drink was allowed, the Ramadan was tough and the sandstorms could be sudden and extremely dangerous. There were also mysteries: one night he and his colleagues saw something in the air which hovered over the secret site and shone three powerful spotlights on it, moving away swiftly when the air force was called.
In contrast, life in Jeddah on the Red Sea was wonderful because of the diving and related activities that could be enjoyed.
Meanwhile he found out that his wife had been cheating on him and instead of going home, had taken her mother to Benindorm in Spain. He got a powerful friend to ban her from re-entering Saudi while she in return blocked all his accounts. However, that meant she could not have access to them and his real money was in a Saudi bank which she could not touch.
A short diversion to Thailand for a fishing competition and a new contract took him to Venezuela and his second marriage. Like the first it was a shotgun marriage. The new wife, Carolina, came with all her family and relatives and all expected to be fed and wined at his expense. They also expected him to pay their overdue bills and whatever her parents needed.
This was when he first encountered voodoo - a curse put on him which many times took the form of three grey clouds.
To get rid of the evil spirit he went back to Swansea and a spiritual centre there.
Against the advice of the spiritual leader, he returned to Venezuela not once but many times. Carolina still badgers him for her family. The political atmosphere is heating up with Hugo Chavez and his mobs taking over everything.
And so on and so forth. The author gets contracts all over the world and they are not pleasure resorts - Pakistan, Nigeria, South Korea, China, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Dubai, Qatar ...
In Bangkok he gets his third wife, or rather she gets him. Wi worked in a salon and from cutting his hair, she became his wife. He was still married to Carolina but he and Wi had a Buddhist wedding nevertheless, a very elaborate Thai ritual.
Having survived armed robberies, attacks of all sorts, dangers from sharks while diving, what got him at the end was hygiene problems in Ghana but this was not as bad as getting through the notorious Benin-Nigeria border and all those Nigerian officials asking for this paper or that when actually they would be wanting just one thing - a bribe, or dash.
As if this was not enough for a full life, the author got the mad idea to buy a house in the Caribbean. The house needed many things and he left matters in the hands of a girl he met at a bar as he had to go to Kazakhstan to work. He had another adventure there but it was hard keeping tabs of what was happening in the Caribbean from Kazakhstan. And people seemed to get the idea that they could invite friends over while the owner was away.
In Kazakhstan he picked up another girl, Antonina, a lawyer and she comes across as more than slightly mad. Worse was to come when she teamed up with the girl, Haitian, in charge of the Caribbean home and when they met each other.
By this time, voodoo was ruling over everything. They had voodoo ceremonies in the house with the killing of cockerels, etc. Then the death threats began: he would die on 15 March in Kazakhstan.
It very nearly materialized: Antonina attacked him with a fish bowl and almost broke his head. She came back later with a bread knife but despite her high connections he got her arrested.
He went back to the Caribbean island and Antonina followed him. Meanwhile he had another woman, a hooker called Inez, trying to sponge on him.
Things became quite hectic until he threw them all - Inez, Haitian, Antonina - out. Meanwhile, he had a severe bout of pancreatic disease and ended almost at death's door. However, he survived that too.
That was when he decided life on the Caribbean island was not worth it and he remembered Malta and came to see this island is safe and peaceful and that he should have chosen here rather than go to the other side of the world.
R. A. Lang
Against all odds
Clink Street Publishing
2014
358 pp