By Clive Nicholls

I have always enjoyed working and being around young people and even now, although I am retired I still have a small job working as a School Bus Driver. I live in a small country town in Western Australia,

I am married to my wife of 42 years and we have three lovely children who have all grown up and have married three great in-laws. We have six grandchildren, ranging in age from The oldest who will be twenty this year to the youngest who will be One in October.

In 1992, I had a bad accident in which I broke my back and that meant that a lot of the things I enjoyed doing of an outside nature were curtailed. Happily I have recovered enough to continue driving around Australia and seeing places that are not quite on the main highways, but a little remote.

I am aware of mental illness, disabilities of many types, and have seen a lot of children having miserable lives at school, mainly because of Bullying. My school years were very happy and I was sad to see them finish. I was, however, dyslexic, and to this day still have some trouble with certain words. I really have to think even on small words like But and Said!

My teachers in Wales where I had most of my education ( I came to Australia at 15 and a half) were very dedicated and one in particular a Miss Thomas, my English Teacher, stayed behind twice a week for a whole term so that I could receive skills to deal with the mysteries of words on paper. I owe her a great debt of gratitude.

I love a great laugh and I have a dry sense of humor. I hardly ever get down and I am willing to laugh at myself. and ridiculous situations. People say I am a good listener, and always take what people say to me seriously.

I will take great pains to share that none of the characters in my books are based on real people although there will be some people who know me well who may see a situation or a mannerism which might seem familiar to them.

I am very conscious that there are very few Young adults books with an Australian flavor, The places that are real in my books may have been visited by me, but I need to share I have never been to New South Wales except Sydney and that was for a week. I have never been to Queensland. so those places mentioned are purely interpretive as far as I'm concerned. They are chosen to give scale, space and Distance.

I hope Young Adults in particular will enjoy my books, I hope they will continue to follow the journey with Madoc and Brody, Rosie and the rest as they explore adolescence.