Once Upon a Time ...
John trained for three years as a specialist Drama Teacher at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and later read for an MA in Modern Drama Studies.
For nearly twenty years he taught Drama in secondary schools in East London and Essex and worked in Theatre-in-Education as an actor, writer, director and workshop leader.
He has also taught at University Summer Schools, Stage Schools, Pupil Referral Units, EBD schools, and has even directed a group of merchant bankers from Merril Lynch in a charity fundraising show at a west end theatre!
and then ......
He gave up teaching ten years ago to devote himself to storytelling and travels all over the country visiting hundreds of schools and libraries every year.
He was the first Storyteller to take part in the Essex Book Festival, where some of his spooky tales shared the bill with the punk poet laureate John Cooper Clarke, and in the last couple of years he's performed at literature and Book festivals all over the country, the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, The Barbican in London, and has been heard on BBC Radio 4 and the digital radio station Planet Rock.
In June 2006 he was one of the guest speakers on the opening day of The Prince of Wales` Education Summer School at Cambridge University. The other guest speakers on that day were Melvyn Bragg, Stephen Fry, Michael Morpurgo and the novelist Robert Harris (no relation!).
His first book, 'Charlie`s Key' was published in March 2006.
'The Creature of Crete'', his retelling of the Greek legends surrounding Minos and the Labyrinth, followed a year later, and October 2007 saw publication of 'The Geat - the story of Beowulf and Grendel.' These books have all arisen from John's storytelling and have been told hundreds of times to thousands of children before even the first draft was written. How many other books can you think of that have been honed in front of live audiences for years first?