Suspected Hippy

About the Book

Barely nineteen years old with her head full of dreams and heart full of hope, author Frances Griffiths journeyed overland from Australia to India on her own, in 1974. Without the necessities of today (like mobile phones and credit cards), she travelled on a very tight budget or on a wire. What became known as the ‘Hippy Trail’- a route winding through Bali and Southeast Asia, to India and Nepal - was forged by young adventurers like herself, from Australia, Europe, and North America. Griffiths offers a rare glimpse into a time when travel to these exotic places was difficult and dangerous. To finance her trip Griffiths worked on a prawn trawler in the Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia, an exciting adventure in itself, but this was only just the beginning. She was arrested in Malaysia as a ‘Suspected Hippy’ and thrown in jail. Later she finds herself broke in Bangkok, and has to survive there by working in a men’s club. But there are lighter moments sailing on an Indonesian turtle boat, and trekking in the Himalayas. Griffiths experienced love and loss in the most profound way in this page turning adventure. Suspected Hippy tells the story of a woman’s search to find her courage and identity, using only a belief in her own destiny and what lessons it had in store for her.

About the Author

Frances Griffiths grew up in Brisbane, Australia the youngest of seven children. From a young age it was her dream to travel before she was 21 years old and her first journey is recounted in Suspected Hippy – Travelling on a Wire. She became a journalist in the 1980’s and has written a wide variety of stories, both fiction and non-fiction, for newspapers and magazines. This is her debut creative non-fiction book.