Who?

I’ve been a professional writer almost from the time I left university. I may be best known for hundreds of hours of kids’ animation. The biggest of all these shows is ThunderCats which is now forty years old but still has an extraordinary following. As does SilverHawks! I'm grateful for this extraordinary experience although sometimes it feels like the crest of Hokusai’s Great Wave overwhelming the fishermen at work below it. The work before and after this great wave includes books for adults, and for children and the adults who read with them. Plus many years of development and behind-the-scenes writing for TV and movie producers and studios in the United States and Europe.

For all its frustrations, I love working in development and have been contracted by corporations from Exxon to IBM, from Firestone to Ferrari; and studios from Warner Brothers to Disney, Pacific Animation Corporation to Fox and many, many others, US, European, Japanese, Korean and Indian.

Bearing in mind how much luck is involved in any career, I’m grateful for the luck which keeps me commissioned and also affords the opportunity to write speculatively: books, screenplays and scripts.

If life experience makes any contribution to one’s work, here’s some background: I grew up in as remote a part of Africa as you can imagine and even after all these years away from the continent, Central Africa is embedded in my heart and soul. My first paid writing gigs were as a technical writer, which transitioned into advertising copywriting. I became Creative then Managing and Creative Director of a small London advertising agency. Made commercials and industrial and promo videos. At the same time, I wrote my first novel (with longtime friend and collaborator Chris Trengove) and sold my first screenplay, which took me to Los Angeles long before the extraordinary phenomenon of ThunderCats and its successors. At various times, I’ve worked in construction, as an electrician, a tree surgeon, a precision movie driver, a lifeguard and a mechanic, and in the general area of addiction and alcoholism. I didn’t set out to take these jobs as part of a writer’s education but they have been a gift.

In recent years, I’ve been asked to speak about my career and life to reading groups, animation and movie groups and to educational organisations. I love these opportunities, not least because they allow me to push an agenda, which is:

Question everything!