Up the creek without a paddle (almost) in Papua New Guinea; a sheep's nose and silver horns in Kabardino-Balkarskaya; dancing with horses on the Hungarian plains; chasing whales in Newfoundland; snooker with a frozen goose; at home with the family linked to the plot to assassinate Hitler and receiving a hair tonic from the Chinese – by mouth.

A farmer's son from south-west Scotland, Arthur Anderson began work in 1961 as a copy boy on "The Scotsman" in Edinburgh shortly after leaving school at 16. As he looks back over a working lifetime as a farming journalist and television producer Arthur claims that these trials and tribulations were never even hinted at in his various job interviews.