Hard Choices from the Butcher’s Boy

By Jonathon Berry

The first thing to know about this book is, it isn’t about me. It’s about the situations I lived through and what I had to do to adapt. And the thing with humans is, we do adapt. Just look at how the nation – the whole world – adapted to having to wash our hands, wear masks and get vaccinated during the global outbreak of Covid-19. If we want to achieve something as a human race, we will do it, and we will adapt. This book is a true story, involving my experience on a mission of goodwill in the tropics of the rainforest, a near death experience on a boat trip in Majorca, and returning to the slow pace of normal life back home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Apr 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798823082334

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© 2023 Jonathon Berry. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/24/2023

ISBN: 979-8-8230-8234-1 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-8230-8233-4 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

FOREWORD

The first thing to know about this book is, it isn’t about me. It’s about the situations I lived through and what I had to do to adapt. And the thing with humans is, we do adapt. Just look at how the nation – the whole world – adapted to having to wash our hands, wear masks and get vaccinated during the global outbreak of Covid-19. If we want to achieve something as a human race, we will do it, and we will adapt. This book is a true story, involving my experience on a mission of goodwill in the tropics of the rainforest, a near death experience on a boat trip in Majorca, and returning to the slow pace of normal life back home.

Coming from the southwest of Cornwall, UK, in Marazion, I grew up in a small coastal community, famous for being known as the home of St Michael’s Mount. I was used to a slower pace of life and people often recognised me as the local butcher’s boy; my parents owned the butcher’s shop along the main street in the village. I knew almost every face in the community, and almost every face knew mine, too.

At the beginning of the year in 2020 before the news of Covid-19 was beginning to become widespread, I was in my old stomping ground of Marazion, having moved around as an adult, and as I headed down the road, a little old lady pulling a shopping trolley caught my eye. She turned round, pointed at me and simply said, ‘Hard times ahead.’

I’ll never forget her; she was dressed in black and white and I knew I’d never seen her before, still being familiar with everyone in the village. How could she have known what was up ahead? What we’d all have to face? It’s her words that have inspired the title of this book. I believe we all have hard choices to make as we go through life, but it is often how we react to them that determines who we are, and how we move forward.

I hope that whatever hard choices come your way in life, you face them head on, with grace and understanding.

PART ONE

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W hen I was growing up in my father’s butcher’s shop in Marazion, I was surrounded by so much history. Marazion is one of the oldest chartered towns in the UK and our shop was one of the oldest, with a stone cat on the roof. Sat across from the shop about half a mile away, and surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, was the 12 th century castle, St Michael’s Mount, which is still proudly there today. As kids, we found lots of hidden caves on the Mount and my father’s butcher’s shop supposedly harboured a secret tunnel leading from the shop to the Mount, used for smuggling tobacco and brandy back in days gone by. My friend who lived in a straight line up the road from me also had an 8ft by 8ft well in the corner of his room, and I like to think these might have connected years ago.

My mum and dad were good, hard-working people and I’ll always remember them fondly. Dad was not only ex Navy but also an excellent boxer and he