Clive Wilkinson trained as a religious studies teacher and began his teaching career in Surrey. A few years later he went to Rhodesia/Zimbabwe to teach at a mission school, immediately after Ian Smith's Unilateral Declaration of Independence and just as the 'bush war' was starting. Returning to the UK, he attended Newcastle University, where he took a degree in geography before returning to Africa to undertake research on human migration in Lesotho for his PhD. He spent nearly twenty years training geography teachers and environmental studies undergraduates in the UK. After retirement he undertook research on youth homelessness and young people not in employment, education or training, the results of which were published under the title 'The Drop Out Society'. He then worked for several years doing research on rural development in Northumberland. Now fully retired he enjoys walking, gardening, writing, playing table tennis, ceilidh dancing and, of course, travelling slowly.