Many people ask..

How did I end up writing children's books? 

Tourism

Stepping back a while I started a travel publishing portfolio and took on a great team to help expand our business. Over the next 5 years as a travel publisher, we published; both upmarket guides combining tourism with high end brands for London, the UK, Italy, Spain, New York, Germany, Paris, France. At the same time we provided London's leading visitors guides and similarly for the UK.

Takeover

Our publications led to our company being taken over, by Morris Visitor Publications, making us the no. 1 trave l guide publisher worldwide, where I stayed on as CEO/Publisher and we acquired WHERE Magazines. Two of the original team went on to form, 'The Tourism Media Group' that still continues the publications today.

Passion Project, bringing Corfu's Oldest Village Back to Life

After latterly stepping away from MVP my next publications were 'The Official Guide to Wimbledon AELTC and Museum' and, for reasons explained later 'The Guide to Old Perithia, Corfu ', a protected mountain village of Venetian-origin that had fallen into disrepair. 

In brief, back in 2010 my wife and I bought and restored three ruined properties and created Corfu's first B&B. The village is now a popular attraction, and has often been featured in TV shows and the international media. Sample Press Coverage from The Guardian.

QR Codes + Smartphones

In between MVP and Old Perithia I was then at the forefront of the leading QR code reading mobile app developers in Europe. I'd branded it as, 'UpCode' along with the tagline 'Ignite your Imagination' working with the developers in Finland. An app that's now commonly used around the world.

Children's Book Publishing

However, at that time [2008] it was rather ahead of the curve at that time so I took on various contract publications for children's books, magazines, and flyers for a variety of clients and mentor some other budding children's authors.

Prior to writing book 1, 'All Animals Poo and We Do Too,' I'd designed, funded and published five children's books...

The ABC of Opera

The ABC of Opera are a series of stories that take children on an exciting journey through the lives of leading composers (The ABC of Opera's Academy of Barmy Composers).  

The other was getting the first three of a long neglected 12-book series designed and published, about the lives of creatures in a manor house, forwarded by Julian Fellowes. 

The book about Old Perithia?

That came about when a passion project to restore the three ruins and bringing the historic village (Old Perithia, Corfu, GR) back to life, led to preserving its legacy for future generations. The village of Old Perithia is now one of Corfu's leading attractions and continues to gently return to life to this day. We eventually sold the properties and land in 2021 to enable future growth and investment.

Trustee, Baker & Yogi...

On a more personal note, I'm a trustee of The Patrick and Helena Frost Foundation, on the Advisory Board of the Anglo-Netherlands Society, a sourdough baker (way before lockdown;)), creative thinker and a yogi.

Famalam

My wife Saskia is a Dutch voiceover, our two children are nearby in London and Broadstairs, Christiaan works for SIFT and is an actor/comedian/film producer and Gemma an Events Manager at Momentum.