BACKGROUNDER
Childhood
Adopted at a young age, I caused a degree of consternation by not speaking English, or indeed, any recognised language, until I was three years old. I like to think I’ve made up for it since. I had a bit of an intellect spurt early on which resulted in me playing chess, reading some of the classics and having special school testing at age five. Thankfully, I developed into something not that dissimilar to a regular schoolboy, captaining my school football and basketball teams and finding maths easy but English hard until a succession of gifted teachers really inspired me.
Student Life
My first book was published three days after my seventeenth birthday and I celebrated my eighteenth by getting a regular weekly column in The Surrey Herald. That column, four further books and over 50 articles on new technology were produced via careful juggling with life at sixth-form college and A levels (Politics, Law and Business).
Taking a year off before attending university, I formed, ran and profitably sold on a computer games company (MikroLeisure) and had my first children’s books published by Virgin Books – Chicago Gangsters and Escape From Colditz. I also wrote a biography of progressive rock band, Marillion, The Script, which was published by Omnibus Press/Music Sales Ltd.
Winning the I-M
Hockey
Cup at Southampton.
Jo's fine but Clive is tired
after climbing the Devil's
Staircase in Nepal, 1988.
Off The Beaten Track
I turned down a PhD place and chose to train and work as a journalist for a national newspaper. No names mentioned as I had a horrid time of it. My naïve young eyes were truly opened by the practises I witnessed and I quickly exited and went travelling for just under two years. Avoiding well-worn routes, I spent much of my time in South America, the South Pacific and the Far East. Being a radio DJ in New Zealand, becoming an ad hoc Easter Island tour guide in my three and a half weeks on that most magical of islands and performing stand up comedy in Ecuador, Singapore and Tahiti all seemed perfectly normal at the time.
Exploring the Bolivian
Altiplano, 1989.
Living In London
I returned with a clear purpose and managed to get an editorial post at children’s publishers, Usborne. I worked as a Senior Editor, seeing books through from concept stage to production. During seven years there, I was asked to write a number of books for the company including: Understanding Science: Machines (American Bookseller’s Pick of the Lists), Soccer Tactics and new, genre-crossing titles of my own devising such as Dr. Genius and the Flask of Doom and The Murder Map Mystery.
Turning 30
Myself and Hodder’s
Anne Clark pose with the
TES Information
Book of the Year award.
My desire to work with other publishers in different ways was mounting all the time and not long after turning 30, it was all change. I moved from London to Manchester - a fabulous, forward-thinking city and set out on a freelance writing career. Lows were few and mainly computer-related. The highs, though, kept on coming. Winning a Times Education Supplement (TES) book award and working with great people, truly enthusiastic about books, made it clear that writing was definitely, the career for me.
Mid Thirties In Manchester
Celebrating my 35th
birthday with a
balloon
ride
over Lancashire.
Manchester has proven a truly inspiring place to live and write. I have been lucky enough to work with some terrific people on some fabulous projects – from a 20-book series of original fiction for early readers to writing an entire 480-page geography encyclopedia. My core work remains writing for children and young adults supplemented by forays into journalism. There have been some departures, including appearing on BBC Radio sports shows, a three week lecture trip to schools in Japan and being a script advisor for a Channel 4 quiz programme.
The Big 4-0
Nice place for a 40th birthday party