Photo of English countryside, looking down across thatched rooftops and rural land in the distance Photo of old castle Photo of old churchyard Photo of old bridge over Thames with swans all around
photo of author standing beside the Thames River in London with the Tower Bridge in the background

Author & Voyager with a Love for England

"My first connection with England came through Gilbert and Sullivan.
At the age of four, I listened for hours to songs from their operettas, playing 78 RPM records on an old electric Victrola. I could never seem to get enough of their bouncy rhythms and zany lyrics, and wound up memorizing for life many of their most famous numbers."    - Payne

A seasoned kayak voyager, Jim Payne has written about his American adventures in One Inch above the Water: Running Away on America’s Rivers (2008). He has written dozens of accounts of his kayaking trips in the U.S. and abroad.

Payne first visited England at age 17, when he spent a year at Highgate School in London, and has since returned many times to visit and live. Following a hip replacement surgery at age 67, Payne even chose England as his rehabilitation destination of choice, hiking across the country for a month to test out his new hip!

When he’s not kayaking, Payne, who is a retired professor, is busy as an avid writer, political scientist, piano tuner, and church organist. He lives in Sandpoint, Idaho.