A J Hyde

My name is AJ

I live in Warwickshire on the most beautiful planet in the Universe. It is the only planet we have, let’s face it, there isn’t anywhere else we can go.

From an early age I realised that we as a species were far too consumer lead so I prefer to reuse and recycle, living both simply and frugally. I mostly eat what I have grown in the garden, I compost all my food waste and plant clippings. I make jams, chutneys and pickles, bake bread, cakes and biscuits. I also make soaps, body cream and face creams from raw ingredients.

I am lucky to live in a space that I can do all this and as a child growing up helped my dad in the garden. Our garden was huge we had apples, plums and damsons, blackcurrants, gooseberries and raspberries. I can't eat Chinese cabbage to this day as it was always full of caterpillars and my mum said that there were times when my dad was out that she would throw the cauliflowers into the farmer's fields as they were so full of bugs. However, I love gardening and growing, I make sure I grow cabbages and Kale just for the cabbage Whites, I also learned that if you leave them, they eventually come back and are bugless and edible.

The books I loved as a child were very much Bear related and included Rupert the Bear Annuals, Gwyneth Rae's Mary Plain books (honestly no one seems to have heard of Mary Plain, the bear from the Bear Pits of Berne), AA Milne's Winnie the Pooh, I still have my 1975 cook book, Michael Bond's Paddington, of course. I graduated to CS Lewis and Alan Garner with a plethora of horsey books thrown in, Black Beauty, My Friend Flicka and anything by Pat Smythe and Dick Francis. As I reached tennish I progressed to Tolkien, Wyndham, Asimov, Vonnegut and other classic Sci Fi writers, I then switched to fantasy. I just love books. John Wyndham has to be my absolute top favourite Sci Fi writer, I love his style and subject matter. In recent times I am currently reading all of Feist's books again and of the upcoming new writers my favourite has to be Lauren James, but then she too is from Warwickshire..........

I learned to ride ponies at the age of 4. Having a pony taught me so much, it introduced me to passion, responsibility, perseverance and purpose. As a carer you are responsible for ensuring the best possible existence for those in your care be they animal or human. I competed for many years, first through pony club, Prince Philip Cup, Eventing and Showjumping. I carried on competing in the late 1970's and 80's in juniors taking my pony to the top grade in showjumping before making the switch to horses. I showjumped up to grade B level before making the switch to horse trials competing for one of the local riding clubs and then switched to dressage when my homebred horse decided he wasn't too keen on jumps! My last horse died, aged 30, in 2019, I had bred him out of my old event mare, I miss them terribly but can't face taking up the reins again.

In my twenties I took up martial arts and later following a couple of battles with Lymphoma I took up Tai Chi and therapies. Together with my life partner and best friend we run our own business teaching Chinese Martial Arts, our familly style is Pak Hok Pai (Northern White Crane) and Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan. We also run school workshops in and around Warwickshire as well as after school clubs teaching Lion Dance, Tai Chi, Arts and Craft to children from Nursery to Year 6. I love creativity with the younger children, we paint, model, draw, papercut and when the children produce something special they love it. Our website is www.longfengmca.com.

I have been to most of Europe, Canada and the USA. I did my Gung Fu and Tai Chi training in China, I have travelled the length and breadth of that country. I have watched the sun rise through the clouds from the top of Mount Ermei. Walked without fear the peaks of Hua Shan, wandered through the tropics of Szechuan and touched the ice encrusted blossoms on Wudan mountain.

I draw, I paint, I illustrate,

I write, I record and I create.

I'm on the wrong side of 50 and Luna & the Great Bear is my first book..