Most men live their lives doing what they do best – whether it is being a soldier, sailor, stockman, artist or perhaps the more sedatory lifestyle of an author of books. R.S. Porteous was all five of these in his one dynamic lifetime!

Robert Laurent is the author of this extraordinary book revealing the fascinating life of a man who kept changing his profession throughout his short-lived life of just sixty-six years. Most people live their mundane lives one year at a time repeating their life’s experiences year-after-year until they eventually retire in their chosen profession. Not so with Richard Sydney Porteous, a.k.a. Syd, who made a career of “changing horses” whenever he fancied a change in life – and was successful in whatever he put his hand to do! That is what makes this man so remarkable and this book so engaging.

Without giving too much of the book’s contents away, Syd was one of the ANZAC’s at Gallipoli, fought with the 8th Light Horse Unit in the Middle East, ” wounded in action at El Burj (north of Beersheba), wrote segments for the Australian War Memorial’s war records book series “As You Were,” skippered tourist boats in and around the Great Barrier Reef, took up commercial art after being taught by the Master – Frederick McCubbin, was a Jackeroo and then part owner of a vast Central-Queensland cattle run, was First Mate on a US Army merchant ship in World War II, then wrote several books including “Cattlemen” – a prize-winning outback classic in the 1960’s.

As the saying goes “Truth is often stranger than fiction.” Syd was often seen taking notes about the adventures of men that he had worked and fought with, and spent time with during recreational leave. These stories became the catalyst for many of R.S. Porteous’s fictional books that he wrote later on when he had time on his hands. As a consequence, not one of R.S. Porteous’s books were “flops.”

R.S. Porteous was a tall slim character and would have had many more stories to tell if given the opportunity. He could  have spoken much about himself but self-promotion was one of the things that he despised – hence the befitting work of telling his story by someone who understands Syd, Rob Laurent, a man who has in some ways walked in Syd’s shoes (although perhaps not quite filling them) albeit understanding the man was never a problem with Rob. Had they met they would have understood each other perfectly and would have surely exchanged some exciting tales.

Changing Horses is a good read with over 200 pages that have been glued and stapled to ensure the book can be read and re-read by many others without pages or binding suffering in any way.