CV for Jess Miller - author of 'The Great Convergence'

Curriculum Vitae for Jess Miller.

Public Speaker and Author of:

‘We’re All In This Together’ and ‘The Great Convergence’.

Born: 26/4/49. St.Annes-on-Sea, Lancashire, England.

Educated: Lawrence House and Stowe School.

Academic: 7 ‘O’ Levels, 2 ‘A’ Levels.

Background:

Owned and ran various businesses including:

Euphoria mobile discotheque. 1970/1/2

Dunkeld House Hotel, Dunkeld, Scotland 1968 – 1985.

Hillhead of Dunkeld (Hotel) 1985 - 1987

Hamburger restaurant, ‘Incredible Edibles’, Perth, Scotland. 1970’s

Trout fishery. 1970’s

Stock dealing company. 1970’s

Jean stores. 1970’s

Property development.

Marital Status: Single.

Dependants: None.

Published:

Self published 'A Guide to Hardy Reels' 1987.

Articles in fishing magazine early 1970's.

Self published ‘The Great Convergence’ - humorous novel 2000.

Self published ‘We’re All In This Together’ – awareness and self-help for Stress & Depression book 2000.

Qualified:

Qualifications for writing ‘We’re All In This Together’ include:

Having gone right through clinical depression and out the other side.

Having learned many lessons in life, including who I am and why I am here.

Good ability to communicate.

Believe I have a lot to offer people in terms of helping them understand much about themselves, others and Stress, Tension, Loneliness and Depression.

Qualifications for writing 'The Great Convergence' include:

30 years involvement with auction rooms building antique fishing tackle collection.

Knowledge of people and life gained at Dunkeld House Hotel.

Extensive world travel.

Publicity:

Featured in 'Go Fishing' video/programme and follow up book with Jack Charlton for UK Channel Four Television. 1970's.

Many interviews on BBC Scotland/Grampian Television News concerning salmon fishing and plight of Atlantic Salmon. 1970's/'80's.

Featured in many newspaper articles in Scotland, locally and nationally, concerning demise of Atlantic Salmon in river Tay.

Featured in Sunday Times colour supplement concerning demise of Atlantic Salmon in river Tay. 1980's.

Featured in 'For Love or Money' programme with UK’s Jeremy Paxman 1993.

Sports:

Fishing (rarely),

Ski-ing (rarely),

Golfing (rarely),

Working Out.

Interests:

Learning – about anything, but especially about God and his path/plan for me – also using computers, the Internet and writing – would like to be better at all three!

Achievements:

Captain of Athletics Stowe School – Sprinter/Jumper.

Survived unknown illness that nearly ended things and did end potential international athletics career 1967/68. Ran 10.7sec. 100m. late 1970’s confounding doctors who said I’d never sprint again.

Survived three major car smashes 1968 – 1975

Survived unscheduled mountainside descent in Land Rover 1970’s.

· Survived close encounter with Grizzly Bear, Dean River, B.C. 1970’s.

The Dean River is where I would eventually meet Dick Cheney – which is a whole other story – however on my first trip there I was placed on a little spit of a gravel island to fish a run down one side of it, whilst my guide took my two companions upstream in the jet boat.

The noise of the rapids drowned out everything else and I was absorbed in my fishing and a while later I turned and looked upstream.

There, floating down on to the end of the little island, was something that looked like a log, but wasn’t. It was the top of a Grizzly’s head!

The bear began to walk out onto the island and I had nowhere to go except into the rapids.

Grizzly bears are short sighted but it knew something was there and it looked right at me and I looked right back, rooted to the spot. At that moment I heard the jet boat start up – the guide had spotted the bear and came hurtling down the river with the big jet engine wide open and the bear heard the noise and took off, fortunately away from me.

Later the guide said that had I not seen the bear I would have heard it when it was right behind me, turned and screamed, upon which the bear would have smacked me back and forth with its claw saying:

‘Don’t………Scream!’

They seemed to think that was really funny!

There is another story I could tell you about an amazing woman we met up there one year, backpacking through that wild country and the bears.

Maybe I’ll post it sometime, please check back.

Survived gunpoint arrest in Culiacan airport, Mexico in case of mistaken identity 1975.

Survived potential air hijack stopped on bus to aircraft Zaventem airport Brussels 1970’s.

Survived SWAT team potential arrest on Mount Olympus, Los Angeles 1970’s in gross error that let gunrunning felons get away.

Survived US Police armed roadblock Wyoming 1970’s after driver guilty of dangerous driving. Magnum pointed at windscreen by police officer resulted in rapid exit from vehicle by occupants.

Assisted successfully in raising money for removal of netting stations river Tay, Scotland.

Built U.K.'s largest antique fishing tackle collection.

· Won Blue Marlin World Championship out of Madeira, Portugal 1995.

I left the UK at the beginning of 1995 disgusted with the performance of the Conservative government (who I voted for) over the previous five years especially. I put a 28’ American boat into Funchal, Madeira, Portugal – about 500 miles out into the Atlantic, South West of Lisbon and called it ‘Freed’em’.

In Madeira they have the biggest Blue Marlin in the world and I really fancied being there for a while, rather than going for a week or two.

It was a nightmare getting the boat there, the Portuguese were obstructive and I was told I could not get a place in the Marina as there were 40 boats on a waiting list ahead of me. They refused to quote me a price to get my boat off a ship and into the water, then they wanted more money to ship it from Lisbon than it was costing to get it over from the States.

So we shipped it into the Canary Islands, South of Madeira and ran it through the night, during which we hit a floating wooden pallet and for a moment or two thought we were goners. But we soldiered on and arrived at Funchal out of fuel on one engine and with the other one coughing its last.

Then we had to set the boat up for fishing and my captain and crewman worked hard in the heat of the marina to get it done. The day before the Championship, which I had entered by paying the US $1,000 entry fee, we got so fed up we went out fishing and an hour later tagged and released a 500 pounder!

At that time many expensive game fishing boats had arrived, the Americans had discovered Madeira and on the day of the competition itself I think we were sixteen heading out from Funchal.

A couple of boats had fish and released them and then we hooked up and a while later tagged and released a 500 pounder. This great fish would be the lifetime dream of most Marlin fishermen, but we knew that in Madeira the fish averaged at least 700lbs. Nervous after our release we were overjoyed to hear over the radio that they had caught and taken a 500lb marlin in the Canaries. Our release was exonerated.

As the day progressed we had a couple of other boats release fish and then we hooked up to the big one. The fight lasted only 8 minutes – a record – and the fish weighed 963 pounds. The fight was short through a matter of luck in our getting really close to the fish whilst it thrashed on the surface before it began running.

I think that was the start of the jealousy from the other boats, crews and fishermen down there, that we had just arrived and as supposed ‘newbies’, which we were not, it was wrong that we should win against all their experience and expensive boats and equipment.

However two of the top crews congratulated us professionally and those people I would like to see again one day.

We had to wait all through the night whilst 46 boats went out from Hawaii and tried to beat us and then we won US$48,000 and, after distributing to my captain and crewman, it paid for the season.

All seems a little strange now that $48,000 would be a tidy sum to me!

Jess

Owned and ran marlin boat out of Madeira engaged in scientific tag and release project of world’s largest Blue Marlin (1000lbs.+) with International Game Fish Association and BillFish Foundation.

Won Marlin Magazine photographic competition 1997 with leaping Blue Marlin photo.

Survived flights in Russian helicopters notorious for falling out of sky, also Mafia street gunfights, Magadan, Siberia 1980’s.

· Survived financial scam and murder attempt South Africa 1997, wiped out financially.

Of course I have always been too trusting. This has led me into all kinds of problems with human beings, the largest percentage of whom are untrustworthy. If you find one you can trust you are lucky, but beware because they can become untrustworthy in a flash, especially when the going gets tough.

I was financing something, which began during my stay in Madeira, and it was to do with a proposed and supposed South African marine salvage operation. It was hard running this business and running my boat in Madeira and in the end it nearly killed me because I took my eye off the ball.

When I realised it was a scam I demanded my money back and that was when they fed me the lethal poison cocktail that nearly took me out. I went into hospital in Johannesburg where it was eventually found I had more Arsenic in me than a human being can live with – 47.6 Nanograms per millilitre of blood as opposed to the 2 Nanograms that we normally have in our bodies. My toxicologist confirmed that they must have been poisoning me for a long time as it was in my nails and in my hair.

Police activity in South Africa and in the UK was instigated and they know the perpetrators and I am sure they watch them. However to prove it would have been as near impossible as getting my money back.

To date, three and a half years later, I have not been offered one single cent on a huge amount they owe me.

About 18 months after the initial poisoning I began to lose weight and started vomiting, lost my appetite and couldn’t sleep. My toxicologist confirmed that it was highly likely I had been administered a biological agent, an organophosphate and, as the people who poisoned me had contacts with special forces, that had been the real concern all along. It would be impossible to find which biological agent as there are thousands, with new ones being invented daily, and each one requires a separate blood test and here in South Africa they might not even know half of the agents to look for.

It was at that time I descended into clinical depression. I lost 34lbs in ten weeks, couldn’t eat, slept an average of two hours a night during this period and became a walking skeletal zombie. My doctor used all natural therapies on me and I detoxified more than you would believe possible. He still cannot work out what turned me around – although I know and sometime I’ll write about it – and told me later he had been really concerned about losing me.

It affects my tendons and muscles. At that time my tendons became like guitar strings with no substance/tissue around them, but as I recovered I began working out and built up muscle around them again. Then I began to pull muscles and get cramp in them and spasm in tendons.

Right now it’s having another go at me (5^th Nov.2000) and I was unable to walk the other day from groin muscle and tendon spasm. So I guess they gave me a life sentence. I got through the anger and the pain and now they don’t even figure in my brain, my plans or my life. I have written it all off and learned volumes from the experience about all kinds of things. Today I help people and know that is the path I will be on for the rest of my life.

Be warned: Murderers do not wear a sign saying ‘Murderer’. They sit next to you all nice and smarmy whilst they slip the poison into your drinks.

So beware…… and don’t be so trusting!

Jess.

Survived descent into clinical depression, major weight loss and near death experience 1998.

Currently:

Commenced website: lifetravellers.org - 25/3/00.

South Africa Website: LifeTraveller.com/sa/

Help people with beating Stress & Depression by giving talks, via lifetravellers.org website and new book ‘We’re All In This Together’.