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59
either side of the saddles and my job was to take the
laden donkeys to the “
alonny
”. My father who had
to stay behind to do some other work in the field,
said to me. “Walk behind the donkeys and keep an
eye on their loads; push them back up gently if they
start leaning to one side.” One of the donkeys was
short and its load was only a couple of feet from the
ground. In the soaring heat, if the pods were crushed
theywould split open and release the beans.Well, the
three laden donkeys started walking and I followed
them; we hardly covered a couple of hundred yards
when I heardmy father shouting. “They are going to
fall, can you not see them, and what did I tell you to
do?” He came running, angry and upset. Only then
I noticed what was happening, but it was too late.
The load on the small donkey was leaning over to
the right somuch that it was dragging on the ground,
crushing the dried up bean stalks and pods. That
event is still very vivid in my mind, but for the life
of me, I do not know why I didn’t see it happening
before my father did. That was it, my father had
enough of me as a farm-hand; my new career also
came to a sudden end.
Turning to education
Not knowing what to do withme, my father decided
to sendme away, to Samuel’s Commercial School; a
private secondary school in Nicosia. That was a few
years after the war and there was a good demand
for farm produce, so my father had some money
by then. As I was fourteen years old, and I hadn’t
been to school for two years, I had to take some
school exams so that they could decide which class
I should be admitted to. They allowed me to jump
a class, which was good for my dad, because he
saved one year’s fees, but bad for me because I had
a lot of catching up to do. I knew that that was my
last chance. So, I worked hard, studying every night
sometimes until the early hours. I was determined
to escape from the drudgery I experienced in the
village.
After the first year, I caught up; from then on I found
learning and studying easier, and at the end of my
four years I won three of the school’s prestigious
leaving prizes.
I then found a job as a clerk and worked for two
years, whilst attending evening classes forAdvanced
Accounting and Turkish. I enjoyed the accounting
classes but not the Turkish. I did Turkish because
at the time it was necessary and invaluable for a
governmentjob.Itooktherelevantexamsandpassed
accounting but failed Turkish, which was really just
as well, because had I passed Turkish I would have
found a government job and stayed there without
seeking higher education. Instead, I decided to go
abroad and pursue higher studies in accounting. By
then I had saved three hundred pounds, and when I
told my father that I wanted to go to England and
become a Chartered Accountant, he agreed and
promised to support me after my money ran out. So
in the autumn of 1956, I left for England.
It was only after I arrived in the UK that I found
out that I did not have the required exams in order
to become an “articled clerk” and start studying,
by correspondence course, to become a Chartered
Accountant. So I spent two years at a college in
Cardiff studying various GCE ‘O’ and ‘A’ level
subjects, in order to qualify for admission. The
gap between my previous education and the GCEs
was too wide, especially English which was hardly
adequate for such an ambitious course, and at times
it was hard-going during those two years. During the
summer vacations in order to earn some money, one
year I worked as a waiter in my uncle’s restaurant
in Deal, and the other I washed dishes in a big
restaurant in London.
When I became an articled clerk my boss, who was
also a qualified Chartered Secretary, encouraged me
to study for the examinations of both the Institute
of Chartered Accountants, and of the Institute of
Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. Being a
glutton for punishment I did, and in time I ended up
with two professional qualifications.
Of the two, I chose accountancy for my career, and
gradually it went from strength to strength; I held
a number of positions, such as Senior Accountant,
AuditManager,GroupManager,FinancialManager,
Regional Financial Manager, and Senior Regional
Financial Manager. I was fortunate to work all my
life, i.e. never been unemployed or made redundant,
and it did not bother me that I did not make it to
even higher positions. Although I was continuously
under pressure to meet demanding deadlines, and
deal with numerous financial ‘organisations’ and
‘reorganisations’ in my region, I found the level of
my duties and responsibilities not at all taxing. So, I
turned my attention to further studies.
Over the years I attended evening classes in: pottery,
car maintenance, cordon bleu cookery, bee keeping,
creative writing, dancing, computer programming,
French and Italian. I also studied and acquired three
University Diplomas: in Social Studies, Computer
Studies, and IT. My interest in further studies did not
stop there. I registered on another evening course
and got my Master’s degree (in Social Ethics) from
Cardiff University in 1991. As soon as I completed
that, I started another part time senior degree course
at theUniversityofGlamorgan andwas awardedmy
doctorate (in EnvironmentalAccounting) in 1996.
Whilst doing my PhD, I wrote and had published
many articles, and when I went to creative writing
classes I also wrote a number of short stories, which
I hope to publish one day.
When I was 65 I retired and left the accountancy
professionandstartedpresentingavarietyof courses,
and teaching, part time, at Cardiff University, where
I am still teachingManaging Finance.
After getting my second professional qualification I
got married to a Welsh girl. We had three children;
a son and two daughters, and now have five grand
children. Since I left Cyprus, apart from the three
years when I lived and worked in Athens, I have
spent the rest of my life in and around Cardiff,
Wales. I am now living with my second wife Beryl.
TheApostate
My latest accomplishment
is the publication of
The
Apostate
,
my first book.
Of all my achievements,
whether
they
were
professional, academic, or
career advancement, the
most fulfilling has been
the writing and publication
of
The Apostate
. It is a
mystery thriller about greed, religion, and sex,
all interwoven in murder and retribution about
contemporary issues.
It was launched on the 25 November 2014 at the
Barry library. The event was publicised well, and in
advance, both by the library and the local press. It
was attended by people fromBarry and other towns
inSouthWalesandwasfollowedupafterwardsinthe
local press with further coverage and photographs.
The Apostate is published by SilverWood Books.
Available also from Amazon as paperback: ISBN
978-1-78132-285-7, and as ebook: ISBN 978-1-
78132-351-9, or from book sellers
.
Mr Makris is number eight in the back row counting from the left.
