'Unfolding a gripping plot'

 

“Once the world has been created, the fantasy author still has to bring the story's characters to life and unfold a gripping plot. That's why good fantasy is such a hard act to bring off.” – Tony Bradman

 

Born in a suburb of London on this date in 1954, Bradman gravitated to reading fantasies while still in primary school; started writing while still a student at Queens’ College, Cambridge (where he earned his Master of Arts degree); and became a full-time writer of children’s lit. and fantasy books in the 1980s.

 

He started his professional writing career as a music writer and children’s book reviewer before writing The Bad Babies’ Counting Book in 1984.  He has now written over 50 books for young people, most wildly successful and led by his Dilly the Dinosaur series, which has sold over 2 million copies alone.

 

Bradman said he first “discovered” books and stories reading Thomas the Tank Engine stories before gravitating to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.  “That,” he said, “really got me hooked.”    

 

 “I love the feeling of being drawn into a story, the delicious sense of tension that comes from wanting to know what is going to happen next and almost being afraid to find out,” he said.  “That happens when you read the best stories – and as I found out, it can happen when you write a story of your own, too.”