A former Redbridge resident is releasing a book of short stories which includes a personal account of his life in the Panama Canal Zone.

Michael J Merry was born in Chadwell Heath and lived there until 1959 when he moved to Panama in Central America where he worked as a telecommunications instructor.

He lived there until 1968 when the Panama National Guard staged a coup and Mr Merry was the driver of the escape vehicle carrying the president, Dr Arnulfo Arias, and several ministers through the military blockade to safety.

The former Royal Liberty School student has now decided to put his memories on the page for the world to enjoy.

“I started writing about 15 years ago,” he explained.

“I was working for a large financial news corporation and was making long overnight trips up and down the Americas and instead of trying to sleep I started to write down memories.

“I found I had a pretty good recollection of things that had taken place fifty years previously and the knowledge encouraged me to record some of these in the form of essays.”

Mr Merry was the division vice president of an American news operation in South America and was in Argentina when the army revolted in the 1987 and Venezuela during the attempted coup by lieutenant (and later president) Hugo Chavez.

He said: “My stories allow readers to visit situations few people will experience during their lives and they can make their own judgements as to the morality of the events.

“It lets me take a dream and expand on it – the power an author has is that he can make almost anything happen.”

The first story he ever wrote was about his time at school.

“I sent it to the school association and it still resides in the “Essays and Poems” section of the archives,” he said.

“The story told the history of a small wood or forest on the school grounds and it’s still there today.”

Now Mr Merry lives a much quieter life with his wife in Miami Beach, Florida, where he is thinking about his next novel.

The Education of Santiago O’Grady and Other Short Stories is available now on Amazon.