AUTHOR BIO

A tired dad, an energetic toddler and a pink princess tent were all it took for the idea to form. The idea that would catapult Calum Dewsbury from unemployed father of two, to published children’s book author in (almost) four short years. His love for reading and writing coupled with the inspiration that he calls Isabella was enough for him to finally open that Word document (he had opened many before, but not quite for this purpose), and jot down a series of ideas for stories that he wanted to write.

 

It all started during lockdown, at which time Calum was placed on furlough, then made redundant, from work. At this time, he began jotting down ideas for a story that had been bouncing around his head for some time, since one momentous day when he was lay inside his tent in a state of complete tiredness following a game of ‘monster’ with his little girl: hence, There’s a Monster in My Tent. It must be said that the opening of this paragraph was not technically true, that despite the conception of his first book indeed coming in 2020, Calum’s interest in children’s writing began years earlier; through one comment on a piece of work created during his college English Language class.

 

The comment? ‘You have a talent for this.’ Short, sweet (sort of) and not exactly groundbreaking, but it stuck in Calum’s head. So much so that he decided to put his incomplete (OK, almost not started) novel down (metaphorically) and try his hand at children’s book writing. From that point onwards the writing didn’t stop, he’d well and truly caught the bug and as book one was going through the publication process, book two, three, four and so on were in the works. There may just be one for now, but he is in no doubt that there will be many more to come.

 

His style? He’s liked to work on a broad range of topics; some from the pink princess tent, some from another place entirely. As with many children’s books, rhyme plays a prevalent role in many of his books; as well as alliteration, anthropomorphism and all the other buzz words heard at school. As much as he hopes that children will be entertained by his writing, he also hopes that they can learn a little; and this fuels much of his work, alongside the children mentioned at the top of this biography. This combination drives him to continue to pick up his laptop each morning and move onwards and upwards.