John Halsted was educated at Westville Boys High, just outside Durban, South Africa,
where he spent more time on the sports field, gaining honours for athletics, and in 1976 just managed to graduate.
In the two years following high school he commenced national service in the South African Air Force and spent more time on athletics tours and having a good time, never fully committed to the defence of apartheid, as his Sergeant Major will readily testify. After completing his national service he used London as a base and spent the better part of eighteen months touring and cycling around Europe.
On returning to South Africa in 1980 he found a job as a shipping clerk and when the opportunity presented itself he transferred to Johannesburg, only so he could continue his athletics career. In 1982 he found himself managing a container depot. It was here that he was run over by a seven-and-half-ton forklift truck and his athletics career brought to a screaming halt – literally and figuratively. He spent three months in an orthopaedic hospital recuperating. It was also at this time that the Western nations applied strict sanctions against South Africa and the shipping industry all but died. Not long after leaving hospital he found himself out of a job and without any marketable skills.
In 1983 he found employment as an internal auditor with a major motor manufacturer. Searching for the ideal career he later transferred to the Accounts and Finance department. In 1985 he went to night classes and trained as a computer programmer later transferring to the I.T. department.
In 1986 he met his future wife Joy, a Kiwi Occupational Therapist, on assignment from the International Leprosy Mission, at Westfort Hospital, Pretoria. They married in 1987 and in 1988 moved to Auckland, New Zealand where they had their four children. In 1994 he moved in to project management, finally finding his ideal career which gives him the fun, the challenge and the variety he requires.
In 1999 the family moved to England, the birth place of his Grandmother. In 2000 he started a part-time MBA at Bath University, which he successfully completed in 2002. On completion of his MBA he realised just how much time he had on his hands and commenced an in-depth personal study of Viking history (from which his family are allegedly descended) - the result of which is this book.