By Dallas Sherringham We all know Michael Pascoe as a national business media commentato and TV iconr, but there is another side to this highly respected journalist that as just been revealed to the public. Michael has just released his new book which tells a story that will resonate with us all in one way or another. You see, not all journeys have a destination which can be found on the map, they are journeys of the heart. Thoughtful, reflective and unique, Michael's memoir, ‘The Summertime of Our Dreams’ is an ode to friendship, family, memory and nostalgia. It's about making sense of one's own life and death. It is about looking back and understanding what is most important in life. At the heart of his memoir, is the correspondence between Michael and his dearly loved friend, Jim as they both are diagnosed with cancer and together face their own mortality and what makes a good life, and a good death in the face of aging and illness. Michael’s interior journey and his reflections on life take place on a road trip – one he has made many times before – between Sydney and Brisbane via the New England highway. It is as much a reflection on his life and friendship with Jim as it is on the power and significance of the open road, of motoring, of fine cars and the way a journey opens your mind. Michael takes the reader from his first car, a Datsun to his Alfa Romeo, which winds its way up the beautiful, but often harsh and unique Australian landscape, enjoying the freedom of motoring as he explores some of life’s biggest questions. ichael has written something that is timely, yet tender and nostalgic. Michael and Jim explore their fraternal love for each other and for the men in their lives — brothers, sons, fathers and friends over letters in email form. Both starting life as country boys raised on farms and in boarding houses and they write to each other on the lessons they've learned and reflect on the changing face of modern Australia — how it was when they were growing up and now. Love has any forms Michael also reflects on what it is like to be living with the pandemic as someone in their sixties and who has experienced cancer. “Why did I write this book? Masochism is the easy answer, but love is closer to the truth,” Michael said. “It acknowledges and explores the love of my parents and being a father, of old friends, of the country; to keep a promise to share Jim’s lesson in dying, to offer some perspective for our times and time – what we’ve won, what we lose, the ghosts we carry. "You know, dogs and poems, boyhood and cars, betrayals and scars. Just life and death, really.” he said. Mike Carlton describes it as: “A moving reflection on fatherhood and friendship, from a life well and thoughtfully lived”. It is available at all major bookstores