A 77-YEAR-OLD man from Canvey who left school with no qualifications has celebrated the publication of his 40th academic book.

Dr Alan Whitcomb, of Long Road, has written books on business studies for school pupils around the world since 1982, and has recently had his 40th book, Essential Principles of Business for the Caribbean, released by his eighth publisher, Hodder Education.

His books have reached generations of students studying for their final exams across Europe, Africa, India, Pakistan, and the Caribbean, and he spends around 16 weeks of the year travelling internationally to lecture teachers on delivering lessons in business to students.

Dr Whitcomb said: “I am very proud of the most recent book – I worked with a fantastic editor in Jamaica who really pushed me to take a new direction in my approach.

“Even after all these years, its exciting to think of the ways the books could help students around the world – putting them together can be a hard slog but its always worth the effort.

“In my own school days I never imagined that I would end up writing text books, so to have written 40 has been a really rewarding experience.

After failing his own 11-plus examination, Dr Whitcomb attended Canvey Island Secondary School and left school at the age of 15 with no qualifications, becoming a merchant seaman taking passengers to and from Australia.

He later undertook teacher training with London University after teaching himself O-levels and A-levels, and spent a year at Bath University specialising in psychology. Within 16 years, he went from being unemployed to holding a doctorate in Psychology presented to him at Cambridge University.

He first became interested in writing text books whilst working at the Sweyne School in Rayleigh (now Sweyne Park), where he worked for thirty years, when he decided to rewrite the first twelve chapters of a leading business studies book that combined both the CSE and O-Level syllabuses, allowing students of all levels in secondary education to learn.

He said: “Every book has always been about making sure that any student, wherever they’re from and at whatever ability, can leave school with qualifications.

“Each place I’ve written for has been a new challenge, but it has been fascinating to visit and write for classrooms that are so different to what we are used to in the UK.”

He has written just one non-academic book, called Hops, Doodlebugs and Floods, in which he reflects on his own life and the recent history of Canvey.

Despite approaching 80 years old, Dr Whitcomb is already thinking ahead to his next subject – a book on office management for the Caribbean region.

He said: “Every time I finish a book, I promise my family that this will be the last one – but there’s always been another call. I think the next one will be my last, but those could turn out to be famous last words.”