As the blurb in the back of the book begins,
‘Ben was born to teenage parents in the throws of revolution in the white-hot electric cool of rural Shropshire, England.’
– I had to put something.
A friend said the website needs something with more detail… but what?
Revolutionary upbringing delivers a spritely approach to systems imposing their will
High school – terrible, could only change by moving schools at 16, and leaving at 18 (yay!)
Uni - accidentally chucked out after a year (wrong subject, wrong course, wrong education)
Adulting - couldn’t get funding to try again – fell into industrial gas pipeline installation for Shell
Waiting for next contract helped out at a record company, Inter-Modo, home of The Orb (yay!)
Fun 2.5 years. That imploded
Worked for a leadership programme (fun!) then a local newspaper group's advertising director while helping develop a 1,100 capacity nightclub The Republic – future home of Gatecrasher (fun-ish)
That exploded (not literally; then later…)
Moved back to London (my spiritual home)
Found you could earn £1,000 a week doing Word and PowerPoint at night on graveyard shifts for investment banks. I’ll have that! Cash to read interesting stuff – a deal
Learnt Word and PowerPoint. Got contract (not fun, but purpose)
Plan = save fees for an MBA (hopefully entertainment one at UCLA) get past no-degree problem with a good GMAT score (classic no boundaries – you haven’t got a degree, so go direct for a tough masters :) )
Back goes from sitting in said banks. No sick pay. Daily pain for 8 years
2005 – Hoffman Course. No back pain since
2007 – Teufel enters my world
2008 – Coca-Cola enters my work world. Summers in London (yay!). Winters away writing Thunderpaws and another book in lovely locations (yay!)
2010 – Decide I need to concentrate on finishing one book, choose Thunderpaws
2015 – Coca-Cola now need me winters (boo). Summers away writing (yay!)
2020 – Lock down arrives. Right, let's get this sucker finished!
2021 – First advance reviews land. Oh my.
Full version of the book's bio:
Ben Housden was born to teenage parents in the throws of revolution in the white-hot electric-cool of rural Shropshire, England. Turning one, he was the youngest resident of the University of Essex and part-time watchman of a café in a caravan. Aged three was hippie communes, marauding north London. He moved to Yorkshire at four – to bring on the revolution. Great adventures followed as an agitprop theatre roadie, budding entrepreneur and bus-fare dodger. Aged eight, he moved to a stately home, unfortunately to an asbestos hut around the back and a job glass-collecting in the student bar. A village of humungous pies came and went. A city next. Sheffield Steel. A failing education was ignored (Jackie Collins’ for your English Literature book project anyone?), university failed. Record company, nightclub, investment banking (not as a banker), broken, light, copywriting, a good friend Jennifer Jessup said: ‘I’ve got this story… a cat at the Tower of London.’
