I was drawn to this memoir wanting to understand what motivated a military fighting man to turn peace-seeker, and I wasn’t disappointed.
In Far Horizons Aaron Tait vividly describes his gruelling training at 17 to become a Special Forces diver and, hours after September 11 in 2001, being deployed to the Persian Gulf. Part of a 14-man unit, he boarded huge smuggler ships filled with oil escaping Iraq at night to break the United Nations embargo. Tait describes his desire to keep experiencing the heightened awareness of dangerous missions, before realising he did not feel he was doing good in the world.
Disillusioned, he wanted to leave the military and slipped off to South America for several months, unbeknown to the training school. Slowly PTSD tightened its grip and four years after Middle East deployment he demanded time out, headed to Spain and a life of nightclubs, drugs and women, before falling in love with the mesmerising American student, Kaitlin. There are many moments that stayed with me, such as when alone at Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh he roars with pain for his ancestors and family, for the life he nearly lost and the life to come with Kaitlin.
The second half follows the young couple working in Kenya and Tanzania, determined to make a difference amid challenges and near-death experiences, and how he learns and grows. So often I expect Tait to follow others’ paths, but each experience inches him closer to his true north. A captivating story of a teenager becoming his own person.
Reviewed by Rosamund Burton
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
From war zones to slums, Aaron Tait has travelled to and worked in more than 70 countries across the globe as a military officer, humanitarian and social entrepreneur, and now writes to help people live deliberate lives filled with purpose.
Aaron was thrust into the frontline of international crisis at a young age, deploying to Iraq immediately after 9/11 as a 17-year-old military officer. A move to East Africa at 25, saw him leading aid projects in crisis zones and urban slums.
As a co-founder of the impact organisations ygap and Education Changemakers, Aaron has helped to improve the lives of more than a million people living in poverty. He is a geography graduate of the University of Cambridge and holds three master’s degrees in international affairs. As an entrepreneur, sold his business EC to the technology unicorn Go1 in 2023.
Aaron lives with his wife, Kaitlin, and his two sons, Atlas and Finn, and moves between his home in Byron Bay and global travels.
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