Magic Travels
The Unlikely Adventures​ of a   Geologist

Magic Travels documents the early life of Patrick McLaren. It is the first of a four volume memoir. Combining humour, travel and adventure, Patrick describes his efforts to become an accomplished magician while growing up in Ottawa in the 1960's. The account takes the teenage Patrick to Jasper where he learns to become a cowboy, dealing with difficult horses, including packing and shoeing them. His magic is never far away, and he is often asked to entertain his cowboy colleagues and other assorted characters.
After finishing with high school, he spends a summer hitchhiking through Europe where he continues to sharpen his magic skills. Performing in many unlikely situations, he takes on a hostile audience at the British Embassy in Geneva. He also has an altercation with an East German border guard and recalls his encounters with a ghost in his granny's house in Yorkshire. 
Following in his famous father's footsteps, he studies science, and especially geology, for two years at Queen's university.  His first summer job was to join Operation Bow-Athabasca, the first helicopter operation to map the geology of the Rocky Mountains. The next summer took him for a long field season on a glaciological expedition in the High Arctic. The adventures and humour are non-stop, and the book ends with Patrick determined to forego university (at least for a while) and continue with further travel and adventure before completing his path to become a geologist. 
The goal of Magic Travels is to be entertaining, and its fast pace and captivating joie de vivre make it difficult to put down. But there is a thoughtful side concerning encounters with the First Nations, including the Inuit, and hints at matters concerning the fate of the planet and what can be done for humans to live on it without destroying themselves.
Vol. 2, A Year Around Earth, takes off where Magic Travels comes to an end, and is expected to be published soon. Two further volumes will follow.