This biography explores the life of the Reverend W. Awdry, the man who created Thomas the Tank Engine, revealing the story of how the railway series first came to be written and how the exploits and disasters on the real railways were used to create the escapades of Thomas and his friends on their fictional line. Illustrated with family photos, pictures from the books and railway photos and memorabilia, this 50th-anniversary biography also includes special features on the engines and events that inspired the series.
I have been a professional writer for thirty years and a freelance broadcaster for the BBC in London for almost as long.
My career began as a radio-writer with dramatisations for the BBC which include serialisations of J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings", C. S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia" and Mervyn Peake's "Titus Groan" and "Gormenghast" for which I won a coveted Sony Radio Award. I have also made radio programmes on a wide variety of topics from the history of magic to the crimes of Jack the Ripper! Series of note include "A Century of Cinema", "The Sound of Movies" and "'Ain't No Mickey Mouse Business!"
My specialist interests have always been film (in particular animation) and children's literature and I have broadcast numerous radio and TV programmes and written several books about both these topics.
For the best part of a decade I presented weekly arts and film programmes on the BBC's domestic and World Service networks but have spent the last few years concentrating on books including a couple of best-sellers on the making of Peter Jackson's film trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings" and researching and writing that director's authorised biography, scheduled for publication in 2006.
I live in London with my life partner, a professional magician, in a house overcrowded with so many books, DVDs and CDs (not to mention all those old videos and gramophone records!) that it is seriously beginning to look like one of Amazon.com's smaller warehouses!
