by Mike K-H

I have always claimed to be a Citizen of the World, rather than a fervent national of any particular country. Running a web site is a satisfying way of trying to live up to that claim.  

Being born and brought up in East Africa as the child of a French mother and a West Country English father has affected the way I see the world, and so has spreading my working life across England, Scotland, France, the USA and southern Africa. And I don't seem to be withdrawing into one familiar environment as I get older, either. 

Thanks to e-mail, I can marvel at New Zealand friends from Botswana who returned to their sheep farm, sold off half of it and planted olives on the remainder. They have just had their first crop - about ten times as big as they had predicted. They hadn't got round to creating their own label yet, assuming they'd only get a token crop first time around.

e-mail also keeps me in touch with other writers and photographers, and the goal of the Freebooters Guest Book is to entice some of you to identify yourselves. For example, site statistics show that Freebooters has a regular visitor based in what used to be the USSR. How did you find out about this site? Make yourself known to us - sign the guestbook, we'd love to hear from you, and I promise to take note of anything you say. As proof, I'll be posting the first recipe soon, in response to Richard Dobbie's request: Jack Gilpin's high-cholesterol croque-monsieur. I have to start with the simple stuff. Paul Bocuse comes later.   

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