Grumpy Young Man

About the Book

“People look at me, with my eclectic tastes, and eccentricity, and think, There goes a weird bastard. Admittedly I dress like a country squire, and have the oddest accent you will ever encounter. I would describe myself more as a ‘bohemian gentleman’…”

Also sprachen Vaughan Humphries – aka the Irascible Kiwi – whose valiant attempts to live up to the iconic status of New Zealand’s Grumpy Young Man are continuously subverted by a fatal and irredeemably cheerful optimism.

From grumpy to cheerful and back again. If only life was that simple ... but things are not quite as they seem ...

It was only not until he finished his undergraduate studies that he had an epiphany, when he started to make sense of a lot of things in his life that had never quite added up.

Vaughan was raised for a society that no longer exists. He is a man out of time with his generation, putting the world to right with peers that are old enough to be his parents and grandparents.

From his childhood in the suburbs of NaeNae in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, through to his arrival in England at the age of 22, Grumpy Young Man covers his curious life and times throughout all points of the globe.

Before you read on, a few words of caution ...

The first rule of Grumpy Young Man is that it never quite sticks to the point – it’s funny, irreverent, discursive, usually politically incorrect and definitely written from a male point of view.

The second rule of Grumpy Young Man is that it never even begins to stick to the point, so if you’re looking for a pointy sticky rulebook, don’t even think of reading any further.

About the Author

Vaughan Humphries was born in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, and has spent the better half of his life to date staying as far away from the place as possible. After a string of successful columns in local newspapers, he was coerced into writing a feature-length book, some of which might have made it into the final cut you see before you. He currently lives in Thame, Oxfordshire and has developed a taste for Guinness and old cars. 'Grumpy Young Man' is his first book, and hopefully not his last.