MICHAEL WATSON - AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Check out his book on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Treasure-Trash-Turtles-Michael-Watson/dp/1609115007/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288721694&sr=1-1
Michael Watson was born in 1951 in Derbyshire, Northern England, just 6 miles from Sheffield, the ‘Steel City’ in South Yorkshire. He grew up as a free spirit, loving the countryside, climbing trees and cycling for miles and now has a home in Skipton, North Yorkshire, ‘The Gateway to the Dales’.
He dipped his toes into music and drama at the Merlin Theatre in Sheffield but art took a back seat as he left home in 1970 and started his 4-year vocational degree at Sheffield Hallam University to become a Chartered Surveyor. Work experience bought him a ticket to start travelling. He tossed a coin between the USA and the USSR and spent three weeks in Moscow, Leningrad and at the Black Sea. He has taken every opportunity since to see the world and has travelled extensively with his wife and family.
A broken engagement changed his direction and took him on Voluntary Service Overseas to Kenya for 2 years. There he met Liz, a VSO nurse, was almost deported when the most powerful politician, after the President, took a fancy to her and, after marrying in Mombasa, they spent a three month honeymoon travelling overland to Capetown to take the boat home. Five years later, he took an opportunity to work in Lesotho, Southern Africa and travelled there with his wife and two young children in 1981. He experienced an incursion by the South African Defence Force looking for the ANC, burning cars and damaging the apartments that he managed.
Settling into a family home and stable jobs for twenty years allowed his children to complete their university education. He yearned for creativity as an antidote to property and construction and drew a series of ten birthday cards – the Birthday Bunch was born. No shops would buy his cards so he used his designs to make educational jigsaw puzzles going round to craft fairs in the smallest sports car in the world – a British Racing Green soft-top based on a Citroen ‘deux chevaux’. Re-assessing his life, he sold the Lomax to fund his M.A. in Counselling and changed his career to where his heart was – working with people. During the fifteen years as a counsellor, parents died, a spiritual home was found with the Quakers and he became a grandfather four times over. Reducing working hours allowed more time for painting. His childhood and experiences with his grandchildren prompted him to start writing and illustrating adventure stories based on the Birthday Bunch.
Prior to retiring, Michael realised a recycling dream. Both he and his wife were accepted by Voluntary Service Overseas to go again to Africa. This time it is Uganda where Michael is currently working in mental health in a former conflict zone specialising in epilepsy reduction and creating livelihoods for people with mental problems, by recycling plastic bottles.
The Birthday Bunch has not been forgotten. Michael’s first book is for seven to ten year olds. Its title is ‘Treasure, Trash, and Turtles’, featuring Nat and Nadia with their number chums, and it was published in March 2010. Hot off the press is ‘Snow, Slides and Scares’, for four to eight year olds and adventures with Toots and Toby. ‘’Search, Secrets, and Spies’, for two to five year olds has been written and Michael hopes that it will be published in 2011. The trilogy is the launchpad for stories for older children and teenagers that are ready and waiting for his readers to grow up.
Michael is now increasingly allowing his artwork to take him along an intuitive path and guide the stories. He hopes that his paintings and stories will bring out his love of family and travel, be a record a life experience and leave a tangible legacy. Michael hopes that ‘retirement’ back in the U.K. will allow him to develop and interest in animation. He has a burning desire to see his characters spring to life on ‘the silver screen’.
All Michael’s stories are available, prior to final editing, on www.birthdaybunch.co.uk and scores of his paintings are in his virtual gallery on www.mikesvibegallery.com. To view an introduction to ‘Treasure, Trash, and Turtles’ go to www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/TreasureTrashAndTurtles.html
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