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Graham Michael Barton
Graham Michael Barton, the Englishman in question, stayed in school to about the age of fifteen. He was expelled and considered a bad boy, with no qualifications and a learning cur...view moreGraham Michael Barton, the Englishman in question, stayed in school to about the age of fifteen. He was expelled and considered a bad boy, with no qualifications and a learning curve that had gone steeply downhill from the age of ten. His patient-but-mystified father sent him to an Army Apprentices College location, where his older brother had excelled. Unsurprisingly, in less than six months, Graham was again discharged as a bad boy. Graham’s dad refused to tolerate his son’s singular lack of enthusiasm for education and insisted he find work. As jobs were plentiful back then, the uneducated, unqualified, slightly angry, and frustrated young man started working in a frozen-food factory. He moved swiftly to a rope factory, became a furniture salesman, worked in a supermarket, and had a spell as an ice-cream salesman. All this was before the age of twenty.
Graham soon realized that to make serious money, he had to work for himself, and he chose his hobby of martial arts, where fighting and winning gave cash prices. But winning wasn’t a given. Losing fights in spectacular fashion gave him the time and opportunity to sell specialized products to his fellow martial artists. Many asked him to find particular weapons, and he sourced these from manufacturers in Spain and Europe. From his one-room flat above his family’s taxi office, Graham sold Japanese swords, martial arts equipment, replica guns and knives, and militaria. Then film companies producing movies such as Shogun, Enter the Dragon, and the James Bond series recognized Graham as the supplier of all things weapon-related. As the years passed, orders from many other film productions including Gladiator and the Lord of the Rings movies took his business, Battle Orders Ltd., to number one in this admittedly limited field.
During this time, Graham travelled to the Philippines to have products manufactured to his design. Emily Poyos, Graham’s business partner and a naturalized Filipino, advised him on one such trip to buy land there. Over the years, they developed Emponet Barton Beach Resort, where Graham retired a few short months before Typhoon Yolanda interrupted his plans. His book The Very Small (Obviously) Book of the Philippines reflects his unique experiences in the Philippines. This book, his second, contains his observations on what happen after the super typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) visited the Philippines. Graham promises that this is his last book about the Philippines, but if enough people buy copies of the first two books, he may be able to write something else equally entertaining. Those of you who have been to the Philippines will recognize the phrase, “It’s up to you!”view less
Books by Graham Michael Barton
The Very Small (Obviously) Book of the Philippines: An Englishman's View of What Should Be Paradise Show Me the Money: Where Did All the Aid and Money Go After Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines November 2013 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings