A Cumbrian Lad

An Autobiography

A Cumbrian Lad is Barry Coulton’s fascinating biography, in which he takes readers on a journey from a small West Cumberland village to the Black Pearl pirate ship in the heart of the Caribbean. Telling the story of his exciting, action-packed life, Barry begins by describing his craft apprenticeship at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant, offering inspiration to those who believe that apprenticeships should still be an integral part of youth development. Barry’s biography tells of his experiences at the Murray Firth Outward Bound Sea School and his pilot training with the Whitehaven Squadron of the Air Training Corps. At the age of 24, Barry gave up an aspiring management career to venture into the wilds of Central Africa where his professional life as a control systems engineer took on new dimensions and his astounding adventures began in earnest. Barry has travelled the world and in A Cumbrian Lad he describes the more unusual events in his life. “My biography is the inside story of the Windscale incident, the frightening truth of the Cuban missile crisis, the heroic untold story of a bomb disposal team at Royal Air Force Kinloss and the real story behind the Russian Putsch. All of my revelations give a new perspective on events that have shaped or profoundly changed the lives of many people in recent history,” observes Barry. Even in retirement Barry has never ceased to pursue new interests, from becoming a crew-member on the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race to becoming a pirate in Disney’s film trilogy Pirates of the Caribbean. In A Cumbrian Lad, Barry shares his adventures on both the Bristol Clipper and the Black Pearl.