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.’
This is a wonderful read for anyone aged 9 to 90. Think Harry Potter meets Horrible Histories… I’m in my 50’s and enjoyed it immensely. I fell in love with Thunderpaws and can’t wait for his next adventures. The cat mannerisms are hilarious and very true to life. The book is a piece of art and beautiful to hold and read from and the illustrations are wonderful. I’m not going to give much away as you need to read this alone or with a child and become lost in its magic xxx
Rachel, Goodreads
