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Hi there, thanks for visiting my website. This page is where you find out a little bit about me. I have done loads of things in the past that have led me on a winding road to where I am today. I wanted to be a cowboy when I was little but unfortunately I couldn't ride a horse so that didn't happen. I started off as a hairdresser (as you can see from my latest hairstyle that really worked well :) then spent time in Africa for a year doing voluntary work. I was then a hospital cleaner and up until moving North I was an operating theatre staff nurse. I have always been interested in music and drama so in my spare time I became involved in a children's theatre company called Sticky Kids touring for over 12 years. I was the singer-songwriter in an indie rock/pop band called Splendid releasing 3 albums and touring with some of Scotland's top acts. Check out some of my children's and adult music by clicking here. About 4 years ago I started to write picture books and in 2016 my wife and I set up a children's publishing company called Little Door Books. Together we published my first picture books then started to work with some exciting new illustrators and amazing award-winning authors including Vivian French, Barry Hutchison, Sara Sheridan, Pippa Goodhart, Emily Dodd and award-winning musician and author Colin MacIntyre. I still write music for all my books and for lots of the books we publish at Little Door Books and music features heavily in my author events. In 2018 my most recent picture book One Button Benny was shortlisted for the Shrewsbury Picture book award and also the Bookbug Picture Book Prize. As a publisher I was Highly Commended as an Emerging Publisher in the 2018 Saltire Awards. In early 2019 I was announced as the winner of the 2019 Bookbug Picture Book Prize along with illustrator Chloe Holwill-Hunter for our picture book One Button Benny. In late 2019 I won the Saltire Society Emerging Publisher of the Year (joint win) I now live in the West coast of Scotland near Oban with my wife and two mischievous cats Sparky and George. |
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