Philip McGuirk

Philip McGuirk is the author of the Colin and Susan children’s adventure stories, a growing collection of imaginative tales that began as bedtime stories and have stood the test of time.

Before turning his attention to writing, Philip spent more than forty years practising as a family law solicitor in central London. He stepped away from private practice in 2025, bringing a long professional career to a close and creating the opportunity to return to something that had been part of his family life for decades: storytelling.

The Colin and Susan stories first came to life in the mid-1990s during a family holiday on the Mediterranean island of Gozo. Based on an imaginary family of geckos and their unlikely band of friends, Philip would invent adventures for his two young daughters, creating characters, situations and stories to entertain them at bedtime. Over time, these stories became something of a family tradition, remembered, retold and enjoyed time and again.

Nearly thirty years later, encouraged by his family and helped by their memories of the original tales, Philip began putting the stories onto paper. What had once existed only in spoken form could finally be preserved as books for young readers and families to enjoy.

Exploring themes of friendship, courage and compassion while tackling serious subjects of environmental danger and animal protection, the Colin and Susan stories combine the warmth of traditional family storytelling with adventure, imagination and the simple joy of discovering where a story might lead next. Each book introduces another chapter in their world, creating an ongoing collection of adventures that can be enjoyed individually while forming part of a larger series.

For Philip, bringing these stories to readers is about more than becoming an author. It is about preserving something created for his own children and giving those stories a new life with a new generation of readers.