About Vaughan Humphries

Vaughan Francis Humphries (born 28 September 1977) is a New Zealand expatriate living in Thame, Oxfordshire. His most notable work to date includes the book Grumpy Young Man, modelling as a ‘generic man’ in several mail order catalogues, and pouring a pretty damn good pint.
Vaughan was born in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, and has spent the better half of his life to date staying as far away from the place as possible. He is quite familiar with airports after being unintentionally abandoned at one at the age of five.
His first effort at writing a travelogue presented itself just before he turned 16, when he was approached by his commanding officer of his army cadet unit to diarise the events that unfolded on their tour of North America. This first trip outside of New Zealand ignited his passion for travel, to seek out new lands, and old civilisations, to boldly go - hang on; this sounds strangely familiar...

Vaughan played the tenor saxophone in his school bands, and following high school, he felt a void in his life without a band or the cadet corps, so went on to merge his interests at the age of 18 by joining the local Territorial Army band, where he gained the nickname ‘Mantovani’, followed very quickly by ‘Stupid Boy’.
Like many naïve freshmen, he majored in English Literature at Victoria University, but by his second year was swiftly seduced by political science, going on to finish his degree with a triple major in Politics, German and European Studies. If three years of subjecting his lecturers to incoherent ramblings both verbally and on paper was not enough, he then went on to do a further year specialising in International Relations. It was during his time at university that he learnt the true meanings of hard work, cash management, time management, friendship and above all how to nurse an incredible hangover.

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