PETER TONG

 

I suffer from a split personality: I write adventure thrillers and crime fiction - and lightweight satirical comedies. But they have a common link: they are always upbeat. When I write 'serious' stuff it becomes boring or inappropriately funny.

My birthplace is the famous Lancashire seaside place called Blackpool well noted for its glorious Victorian tower and ballroom. But aged seven we moved inland to Bolton, centre of the Industrial Revolution, and where the veteran Bolton Wanderers football (soccer) club is based. Bolton has been the family home town for many generations. I have since moved around and live Normandy and England. With time in America and Canada.

As a child I wanted to be an artist, but writing weekly 'compositions' at school inspired me to become a writer, and encouraged by reading hundreds of library books. At ten I matured with writing sci-fi. I got my first commission from a schoolmate to write him a story about a haunted space station. I still wake up sweating from ghostly galactic nightmares. At around 13, I branched out with a couple of surreal comedy stories based on the curious life of a pal's family

My first adult inspiration came from the theatre, and my first performed play was a Christmas pantomime, Ali the Barber and the 39 Thieves. I have written professionally for most outlets, starting with magazine travel articles after trekking to Australia and back, but fiction is my true calling with plays and serials for radio, scripts for screen and television, and stage plays. I worked in theatre, from set building to writing and producing. I also ran a ghost-writing agency. With little money and less experience, but with an obsessive passion and total belief in myself, I made the comic feature, Gobsmacked!. And what a vertical learning curve that was. But great fun. On advice from America, I'll be writing an inspirational book about how I made the movie, to show that we can all fulfil our desires despite the difficulties by being honest and truthful to oneself.

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Joined the WGGB in the 1980s. Was the first secretary of Authors North, the northern arm of the Society of Authors.